17 research outputs found
Transference of Transport Anisotropy to Composite Fermions
When interacting two-dimensional electrons are placed in a large
perpendicular magnetic field, to minimize their energy, they capture an even
number of flux quanta and create new particles called composite fermions (CFs).
These complex electron-flux-bound states offer an elegant explanation for the
fractional quantum Hall effect. Furthermore, thanks to the flux attachment, the
effective field vanishes at a half-filled Landau level and CFs exhibit
Fermi-liquid-like properties, similar to their zero-field electron
counterparts. However, being solely influenced by interactions, CFs should
possess no memory whatever of the electron parameters. Here we address a
fundamental question: Does an anisotropy of the electron effective mass and
Fermi surface (FS) survive composite fermionization? We measure the resistance
of CFs in AlAs quantum wells where electrons occupy an elliptical FS with large
eccentricity and anisotropic effective mass. Similar to their electron
counterparts, CFs also exhibit anisotropic transport, suggesting an anisotropy
of CF effective mass and FS.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Spin-valley phase diagram of the two-dimensional metal-insulator transition
Using symmetry breaking strain to tune the valley occupation of a
two-dimensional (2D) electron system in an AlAs quantum well, together with an
applied in-plane magnetic field to tune the spin polarization, we independently
control the system's valley and spin degrees of freedom and map out a
spin-valley phase diagram for the 2D metal-insulator transition. The insulating
phase occurs in the quadrant where the system is both spin- and
valley-polarized. This observation establishes the equivalent roles of spin and
valley degrees of freedom in the 2D metal-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Valley polarization in MoS2 monolayers by optical pumping
We report experimental evidences on selective occupation of the degenerate
valleys in MoS2 monolayers by circularly polarized optical pumping. Over 30%
valley polarization has been observed at K and K' valley via the polarization
resolved luminescence spectra on pristine MoS2 monolayers. It demonstrates one
viable way to generate and detect valley polarization towards the conceptual
valleytronics applications with information carried by the valley index
Spin and valley quantum Hall ferromagnetism in graphene
In a graphene Landau level (LL), strong Coulomb interactions and the fourfold
spin/valley degeneracy lead to an approximate SU(4) isospin symmetry. At
partial filling, exchange interactions can spontaneously break this symmetry,
manifesting as additional integer quantum Hall plateaus outside the normal
sequence. Here we report the observation of a large number of these quantum
Hall isospin ferromagnetic (QHIFM) states, which we classify according to their
real spin structure using temperature-dependent tilted field magnetotransport.
The large measured activation gaps confirm the Coulomb origin of the broken
symmetry states, but the order is strongly dependent on LL index. In the high
energy LLs, the Zeeman effect is the dominant aligning field, leading to real
spin ferromagnets with Skyrmionic excitations at half filling, whereas in the
`relativistic' zero energy LL, lattice scale anisotropies drive the system to a
spin unpolarized state, likely a charge- or spin-density wave.Comment: Supplementary information available at http://pico.phys.columbia.ed