Bound states induced giant oscillations of the conductance in the quantum Hall regime

Abstract

We theoretically studied the quasiparticle transport in a 2D electron gas biased in the quantum Hall regime and in the presence of a lateral potential barrier. The lateral junction hosts the specific magnetic field dependent quasiparticle states highly localized in the transverse direction. The quantum tunnelling across the barrier provides a complex bands structure of a one-dimensional energy spectrum of these bound states, , where py is the electron momentum in the longitudinal direction y. Such a spectrum manifests itself by a large number of peaks and drops in the dependence of the magnetic edge states transmission coefficient D(E ) on the electron energy E. E.g. the high value of D occurs as soon as the electron energy E reaches gaps in the spectrum. These peaks and drops of D(E) result in giant oscillations of the transverse conductance Gx with the magnetic field and/or the transport voltage. Our theoretical analysis, based on the coherent macroscopic quantum superposition of the bound states and the magnetic edge states propagating along the system boundaries, is in a good accord with the experimental observations found in Kang et al (2000 Lett. Nat. 403 59)