NUCLEAR-SPIN-BASED MEASUREMENTS OF QUANTUM HALL SYSTEMS

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is widely used in the physical, chemical, and biological sciences. However, conventional NMR techniques based on induction-detection have drawbacks of low-sensitivity and the need of a relatively large sample. It is not suitable to investigate single or double layers (or their nanostructure), which is essential in studying quantum Hall (QH) effects. In this presentation, I discussed a resistively-detected technique to overcome the low-sensitivity limitation of conventional NMR and its application to QH systems. Resistively-detected nuclear-spin-based measurements rely on enhanced interactions between electron and nuclear spins at the degenerate point of different electron-spin states. For example, at the ν = 2/3 degenerate point in a AlGaAs / GaAs system,1–3 nuclear-spin polarization far beyond the thermal equilibrium is generated using current flow (dynamic nuclear-spin polarization). Moreover, nuclear-spin polarization can be detected as enhanced resistance, which is proportional to the magnetization, Mz, of nuclear spins.2 It should be stressed that the special states of ν = 2/3 are needed for dynamic nuclear-spin polarization and Mz detection, but we can apply NMR spectrum and nuclear-spin relaxation (T1 time) measurements for any state we want to estimate. These nuclear-spin-based measurements were successfully applied to characterize QH systems, especially their electron-spin features, using single and double layer systems where characteristics are controlled electrically by the gate biases. For a single layer, we could clarify skyrmion,2 spin-polarization of composite fermion,4 and enhanced spin-orbit interactions in a strongly asymmetric confinement.5 Exciting phases, like a canted antiferromagnetic phase, were studied in a double layer QH system with a total filling factor of 2 (Refs. 6, 7). The low-frequency mode was sensitively detected by monitoring T1, reflecting correlated electron spin features.7 The clear observations of the characteristics, which are difficult to detect in conventional transport and optical measurements, make nuclear-spin-based measurement combined with resistance-detection a versatile and powerful tool for studying QH physics. Possible extensions of such measurements to semiconductor nanosystems were also discussed. The experiments discussed here were mainly carried out at NTT Basic Research Laboratories in collaboration with K. Muraki, N. Kumada, K. Takashina, K. Hashimoto, S. Watanabe and G. Yusa. Note from Publisher: This article contains the abstract only.