Fermi Sea Of Composite Fermions Research Articles

Highly Anisotropic Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall State in an Orbitally Coupled Half-Filled Landau Level.

The even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states (FQHSs) in half-filled Landau levels are generally believed to host non-Abelian quasiparticles and be of potential use in topological quantum computing. Of particular interest is the competition and interplay between the even-denominator FQHSs and other ground states, such as anisotropic phases and composite fermion Fermi seas. Here, we report the observation of an even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state with highly anisotropic in-plane transport coefficients at Landau level filling factor ν=3/2. We observe this state in an ultra-high-quality GaAs two-dimensional hole system when a large in-plane magnetic field is applied. By increasing the in-plane field, we observe a sharp transition from an isotropic composite fermion Fermi sea to an anisotropic even-denominator FQHS. Our data and calculations suggest that a unique feature of two-dimensional holes, namely the coupling between heavy-hole and light-hole states, combines different orbital components in the wave function of one Landau level, and leads to the emergence of a highly anisotropic even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state. Our results demonstrate that the GaAs two-dimensional hole system is a unique platform for the exploration of exotic, many-body ground states.

Fractional Quantum Hall Effect with Unconventional Pairing in Monolayer Graphene.

Motivated by the observation of even denominator fractional quantum Hall effect in the n=3 Landau level of monolayer graphene [Kim etal., Nat. Phys. 15, 154 (2019)NPAHAX1745-247310.1038/s41567-018-0355-x], we consider a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer variational state for composite fermions and find that the composite-fermion Fermi sea in this Landau level is unstable to an f-wave pairing. Analogous calculation suggests the possibility of a p-wave pairing of composite fermions at half filling in the n=2 graphene Landau level, whereas no pairing instability is found at half filling in the n=0 and n=1 graphene Landau levels. The relevance of these results to experiments is discussed.

Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing of composite fermions

Topological pairing of composite fermions has led to remarkable ideas, such as excitations obeying non-Abelian braid statistics and topological quantum computation. We construct a $p$-wave paired Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) wave function for composite fermions in the torus geometry, which is a convenient geometry for formulating momentum space pairing as well as for revealing the underlying composite-fermion Fermi sea. Following the standard BCS approach, we minimize the Coulomb interaction energy at half filling in the lowest and the second Landau levels, which correspond to filling factors $\nu=1/2$ and $\nu=5/2$ in GaAs quantum wells, by optimizing two variational parameters that are analogous to the gap and the Debye cut-off energy of the BCS theory. Our results show no evidence for pairing at $\nu=1/2$ but a clear evidence for pairing at $\nu=5/2$. To a good approximation, the highest overlap between the exact Coulomb ground state at $\nu=5/2$ and the BCS state is obtained for parameters that minimize the energy of the latter, thereby providing support for the physics of composite-fermion pairing as the mechanism for the $5/2$ fractional quantum Hall effect. We discuss the issue of modular covariance of the composite-fermion BCS wave function, and calculate its Hall viscosity and pair correlation function. By similar methods, we look for but do not find an instability to $s$-wave pairing for a spin-singlet composite-fermion Fermi sea at half-filled lowest Landau level in a system where the Zeeman splitting has been set to zero.

Origin of the ν=1/2 fractional quantum Hall effect in wide quantum wells

The nature of the fractional quantum Hall effect at $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$, observed in wide quantum wells almost three decades ago, is still under debate. Previous studies have investigated it using the variational Monte Carlo method, which assumes that the transverse wave function and the gap between the symmetric and antisymmetric subbands obtained in a local density approximation at zero magnetic field remain valid even at high perpendicular magnetic fields; this method also ignores the effect of Landau level mixing. We develop in this work a three-dimensional fixed-phase diffusion Monte Carlo method, which gives, in a single framework, the total energies of various candidate states in a finite width quantum well, including Landau level mixing, directly in a large magnetic field. This method can be applied to one-component states and also to two-component states in the limit where the symmetric and antisymmetric bands are nearly degenerate. Our three-dimensional fixed-phase diffusion Monte Carlo calculations find that the one-component composite-fermion Fermi sea and the one-component Pfaffian states are very close in energy for a range of quantum-well widths and densities, suggesting that the observed 1/2 fractional quantum Hall state in wide quantum wells is likely to be the one-component Pfaffian state. We hope that this will motivate further experimental studies of this state.

Hall viscosity of the composite-fermion Fermi seas for fermions and bosons

The Hall viscosity has been proposed as a topological property of incompressible fractional quantum Hall states and can be evaluated as Berry curvature. This paper reports on the Hall viscosities of composite-fermion Fermi seas at $\nu=1/m$, where $m$ is even for fermions and odd for bosons. A well-defined value for the Hall viscosity is not obtained by viewing the $1/m$ composite-fermion Fermi seas as the $n\rightarrow \infty$ limit of the Jain $\nu=n/(nm\pm 1)$ states, whose Hall viscosities $(\pm n+m)\hbar \rho/4$ ($\rho$ is the two-dimensional density) approach $\pm \infty$ in the limit $n\rightarrow \infty$. A direct calculation shows that the Hall viscosities of the composite-fermion Fermi sea states are finite, and also relatively stable with system size variation, although they are not topologically quantized in the entire $\tau$ space. I find that the $\nu=1/2$ composite-fermion Fermi sea wave function for a square torus yields a Hall viscosity that is expected from particle-hole symmetry and is also consistent with the orbital spin of $1/2$ for Dirac composite fermions. I compare my numerical results with some theoretical conjectures.

Bloch ferromagnetism of composite fermions

In 1929 Felix Bloch suggested that the paramagnetic Fermi sea of electrons should make a spontaneous transition to a fully-magnetized state at very low densities, because the exchange energy gained by aligning the spins exceeds the enhancement in the kinetic energy. We report here the observation of an abrupt, interaction-driven transition to full magnetization, highly reminiscent of Bloch ferromagnetism that has eluded experiments for the last ninety years. Our platform is the exotic two-dimensional Fermi sea of composite fermions at half-filling of the lowest Landau level. Via quantitative measurements of the Fermi wavevector, which provides a direct measure of the spin polarization, we observe a sudden transition from a partially-spin-polarized to a fully-spin-polarized ground state as we lower the composite fermions' density. Our detailed theoretical calculations provide a semi-quantitative account of this phenomenon.

Precise Experimental Test of the Luttinger Theorem and Particle-Hole Symmetry for a Strongly Correlated Fermionic System.

A fundamental concept in physics is the Fermi surface, the constant-energy surface in momentum space encompassing all the occupied quantum states at absolute zero temperature. In 1960, Luttinger postulated that the area enclosed by the Fermi surface should remain unaffected even when electron-electron interaction is turned on, so long as the interaction does not cause a phase transition. Understanding what determines the Fermi surface size is a crucial and yet unsolved problem in strongly interacting systems such as high-T_{c} superconductors. Here we present a precise test of the Luttinger theorem for a two-dimensional Fermi liquid system where the exotic quasiparticles themselves emerge from the strong interaction, namely, for the Fermi sea of composite fermions (CFs). Via direct, geometric resonance measurements of the CFs' Fermi wave vector down to very low electron densities, we show that the Luttinger theorem is obeyed over a significant range of interaction strengths, in the sense that the Fermi sea area is determined by the density of the minority carriers in the lowest Landau level. Our data also address the ongoing debates on whether or not CFs obey particle-hole symmetry, and if they are Dirac particles. We find that particle-hole symmetry is obeyed, but the measured Fermi sea area differs quantitatively from that predicted by the Dirac model for CFs.

Competition of Pairing and Nematicity in the Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Due to its extremely rich phase diagram, the two-dimensional electron gas exposed to perpendicular magnetic fields has been the subject of intense and sustained study. One particularly interesting problem in this system is that of the half-filled Landau level, where the Fermi sea of composite fermions, a fractional quantum Hall state arising from a pairing instability of the composite fermions, and the quantum Hall nematic were observed in the half-filled N = 0, N = 1, and N ≥ 2 Landau levels, respectively. Thus, different ground states developed in different half-filled Landau levels. This situation has recently changed, when evidence for both the paired fractional quantum Hall state and the quantum Hall nematic was reported in the half-filled N = 1 Landau level. Furthermore, a direct quantum phase transition between these two ordered states was found. These results highlight an intimate connection between pairing and nematicity, which is a topic of current interest in several strongly correlated systems, in a well-understood and low-disorder environment.

Prediction of a Non-Abelian Fractional Quantum Hall State with f-Wave Pairing of Composite Fermions in Wide Quantum Wells.

We theoretically investigate the nature of the state at the quarter filled lowest Landau level and predict that, as the quantum well width is increased, a transition occurs from the composite fermion Fermi sea into a novel non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall state that is topologically equivalent to f-wave pairing of composite fermions. This state is topologically distinct from the familiar p-wave paired Pfaffian state. We compare our calculated phase diagram with experiments and make predictions for many observable quantities.

Berry phase of the composite-fermion Fermi sea: Effect of Landau-level mixing

We construct explicit lowest-Landau-level wave functions for the composite-fermion Fermi sea and its low energy excitations following a recently developed approach [Pu, Wu and Jain, Phys. Rev. B 96, 195302 (2018)] and demonstrate them to be very accurate representations of the Coulomb eigenstates. We further ask how the Berry phase associated with a closed loop around the Fermi circle, predicted to be $\pi$ in a Dirac composite fermion theory satisfying particle-hole symmetry [D. T. Son, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031027 (2015)], is affected by Landau level mixing. For this purpose, we consider a simple model wherein we determine the variational ground state as a function of Landau level mixing within the space spanned by two basis functions: the lowest-Landau-level projected and the unprojected composite-fermion Fermi sea wave functions. We evaluate Berry phase for a path around the Fermi circle within this model following a recent prescription, and find that it rotates rapidly as a function of Landau level mixing. We also consider the effect of a particle-hole symmetry breaking three-body interaction on the Berry phase while confining the Hilbert space to the lowest Landau level. Our study deepens the connection between the $\pi$ Berry phase and the exact particle-hole symmetry in the lowest Landau level.

Weak antilocalization of composite fermions in graphene

Composite fermions in fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems are believed to form a Fermi sea of weakly interacting particles at half filling $\nu=1/2$. Recently, it was proposed (D. T. Son, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031027 (2015)) that these composite fermions are Dirac particles. In our work, we demonstrate experimentally that composite fermions found in monolayer graphene are Dirac particles at half filling. Our experiments have addressed FQH states in high-mobility, suspended graphene Corbino disks in the vicinity of $\nu=1/2$. We find strong temperature dependence of conductivity $\sigma$ away from half filling, which is consistent with the expected electron-electron interaction induced gaps in the FQH state. At half filling, however, the temperature dependence of conductivity $\sigma(T)$ becomes quite weak as expected for a Fermi sea of composite fermions and we find only logarithmic dependence of $\sigma$ on $T$. The sign of this quantum correction coincides with weak antilocalization of composite fermions, which reveals the relativistic Dirac nature of composite fermions in graphene.

Cyclotron Orbits of Composite Fermions in the Fractional Quantum Hall Regime.

We study a bilayer GaAs hole system that hosts two distinct many-body phases at low temperatures and high perpendicular magnetic fields. The higher-density (top) layer develops a Fermi sea of composite fermions (CFs) in its half-filled lowest Landau level, while the lower-density (bottom) layer forms a Wigner crystal (WC) as its filling becomes very small. Owing to the interlayer interaction, the CFs in the top layer feel the periodic Coulomb potential of the WC in the bottom layer. We measure the magnetoresistance of the top layer while changing the bottom-layer density. As the WC layer density increases, the resistance peaks separating the adjacent fractional quantum Hall states in the top layer change nonmonotonically and attain maximum values when the cyclotron orbit of the CFs encloses one WC lattice point. These features disappear at T=275 mK when the WC melts. The observation of such geometric resonance features is unprecedented and surprising as it implies that the CFs retain a well-defined cyclotron orbit and Fermi wave vector even deep in the fractional quantum Hall regime, far from half-filling.

Fermi wave vector for the partially spin-polarized composite-fermion Fermi sea

The fully spin polarized composite fermion (CF) Fermi sea at half filled lowest Landau level has a Fermi wave vector $k^*_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho_e}$, where $\rho_e$ is the density of electrons or composite fermions, supporting the notion that the interaction between composite fermions can be treated perturbatively. Away from $\nu=1/2$, the area is seen to be consistent with $k^*_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho_e}$ for $\nu<1/2$ but $k^*_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho_h}$ for $\nu>1/2$, where $\rho_h$ is the density of holes in the lowest Landau level. This result is consistent with particle-hole symmetry in the lowest Landau level. We investigate in this article the Fermi wave vector of the spin-singlet CF Fermi sea (CFFS) at $\nu=1/2$, for which particle-hole symmetry is not a consideration. Using the microscopic CF theory, we find that for the spin-singlet CFFS the Fermi wave vectors for up and down spin CFFSs at $\nu=1/2$ are consistent with $k^{*\uparrow,\downarrow}_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho^{\uparrow,\downarrow}_e}$, where $\rho^{\uparrow}_e=\rho^{\downarrow}_e=\rho_e/2$, which implies that the residual interactions between composite fermions do not cause a non-perturbative correction for non-fully spin polarized CFFS either. Our results suggest the natural conjecture that for arbitrary spin polarization the CF Fermi wave vectors are given by $k^{*\uparrow}_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho^{\uparrow}_e}$ and $k^{*\downarrow}_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho^{\downarrow}_e}$.

Positions of the magnetoroton minima in the fractional quantum Hall effect

The multitude of excitations of the fractional quantum Hall state are very accurately understood, microscopically, as excitations of composite fermions across their Landau-like $\Lambda$ levels. In particular, the dispersion of the composite fermion exciton, which is the lowest energy spin conserving neutral excitation, displays filling-factor-specific minima called "magnetoroton" minima. Simon and Halperin employed the Chern-Simons field theory of composite fermions [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 48}, 17368 (1993)] to predict the magnetoroton minima positions. Recently, Golkar \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 117}, 216403 (2016)] have modeled the neutral excitations as deformations of the composite fermion Fermi sea, which results in a prediction for the positions of the magnetoroton minima. Using methods of the microscopic composite fermion theory we calculate the positions of the roton minima for filling factors up to 5/11 along the sequence $s/(2s+1)$ and find them to be in reasonably good agreement with both the Chern-Simons field theory of composite fermions and Golkar \emph{et al.}'s theory. We also find that the positions of the roton minima are insensitive to the microscopic interaction in agreement with Golkar \emph{et al.}'s theory. As a byproduct of our calculations, we obtain the charge and neutral gaps for the fully spin polarized states along the sequence $s/(2s\pm 1)$ in the lowest Landau level and the $n=1$ Landau level of graphene.

Tunnel transport and interlayer excitons in bilayer fractional quantum Hall systems

In a bilayer system consisting of a composite-fermion Fermi sea in each layer, the tunnel current is exponentially suppressed at zero bias, followed by a strong peak at a finite bias voltage $V_{\rm max}$. This behavior, which is qualitatively different from that observed for the electron Fermi sea, provides fundamental insight into the strongly correlated non-Fermi liquid nature of the CF Fermi sea and, in particular, offers a window into the short-distance high-energy physics of this state. We identify the exciton responsible for the peak current and provide a quantitative account of the value of $V_{\rm max}$. The excitonic attraction is shown to be quantitatively significant, and its variation accounts for the increase of $V_{\rm max}$ with the application of an in-plane magnetic field. We also estimate the critical Zeeman energy where transition occurs from a fully spin polarized composite fermion Fermi sea to a partially spin polarized one, carefully incorporating corrections due to finite width and Landau level mixing, and find it to be in satisfactory agreement with the Zeeman energy where a qualitative change has been observed for the onset bias voltage [Eisenstein et al., Phys. Rev. B 94, 125409 (2016)]. For fractional quantum Hall states, we predict a substantial discontinuous jump in $V_{\rm max}$ when the system undergoes a transition from a fully spin polarized state to a spin singlet or a partially spin polarized state.

Anisotropic composite fermions and fractional quantum Hall effect

We study the role of anisotropy on the transport properties of composite fermions near Landau level filling factor $\nu=1/2$ in two-dimensional holes confined to a GaAs quantum well. By applying a parallel magnetic field, we tune the composite fermion Fermi sea anisotropy and monitor the relative change of the transport scattering time at $\nu=1/2$ along the principal directions. Interpreted in a simple Drude model, our results suggest that the scattering time is longer along the longitudinal direction of the composite fermion Fermi sea. Furthermore, the measured energy gap for the fractional quantum Hall state at $\nu=2/3$ decreases when anisotropy becomes significant. The decrease, however, might partly stem from the charge distribution becoming bilayer-like at very large parallel magnetic fields.

Fractional quantum Hall effect in HgTe quantum wells

We study the possibility of fractional quantum Hall effects in HgTe quantum wells using exact diagonalization. Our results show that Laughlin states, the Moore-Read state, and the Read-Rezayi $Z_3$ state can all be supported. However, near the level crossing point (of the single-particle spectrum), the gap can be destroyed by Landau level mixing, and the Moore-Read state and the Read-Rezayi state dominate over their respective competing states only for wide wells. For smaller well widths the Moore-Read state crosses over to the composite fermion Fermi sea, while the Read-Rezayi state loses its dominance over the hierarchy state.

Spontaneous polarization of composite fermions in then=1Landau level of graphene

Motivated by recent experiments that reveal expansive fractional quantum Hall states in the $n=1$ graphene Landau level and suggest a nontrivial role of the spin degree of freedom [Amet {\em et al.}, Nat. Common. {\bf 6}, 5838 (2014)], we perform accurate quantitative study of the the competition between fractional quantum Hall states with different spin polarizations. We find that the fractional quantum Hall effect is well described in terms of composite fermions, but the spin physics is qualitatively different from that in the $n=0$ Landau level. In particular, for the states at filling factors $n/(2n\pm 1)$, both exact diagonalization and the composite fermion theory show that the ground state is fully spin polarized and supports a robust spin wave mode even in the limit of vanishing Zeeman coupling. Thus, even though composite fermions are formed, a mean field description that treats them as weakly interacting particles breaks down, and the exchange interaction between them is strong enough to cause a qualitative change in the behavior by inducing full spin polarization. We also verify that the fully spin polarized composite fermion Fermi sea has lower energy than the paired Pfaffian state at the relevant half fillings in the $n=1$ graphene Landau level, indicating a lack of fractional quantum Hall effect at half filling in the $n=1$ graphene Landau level.

Luttinger Theorem for the Strongly Correlated Fermi Liquid of Composite Fermions.

While an ordinary Fermi sea is perturbatively robust to interactions, the paradigmatic composite-fermion (CF) Fermi sea arises as a nonperturbative consequence of emergent gauge fields in a system where there was no Fermi sea to begin with. A mean-field picture suggests two Fermi seas, of composite fermions made from electrons or holes in the lowest Landau level, which occupy different areas away from half filling and thus appear to represent distinct states. Using the microscopic theory of composite fermions, which satisfies particle-hole symmetry in the lowest Landau level to an excellent approximation, we show that the Fermi wave vectors at filling factors ν and 1-ν are equal when expressed in units of the inverse magnetic length, and are generally consistent with the experimental findings of Kamburov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 196801 (2014)]. Our calculations suggest that the area of the CF Fermi sea may slightly violate the Luttinger area rule.

Geometric Resonance of Composite Fermions Near the ν=1/2 Fractional Quantum Hall State.

We observe geometric resonance features of composite fermions on the flanks of the even-denominator ν=1/2 fractional quantum Hall state in high-mobility two-dimensional electron and hole systems confined to wide GaAs quantum wells and subjected to a weak, strain-induced, unidirectional periodic potential modulation. The features provide a measure of how close to ν=1/2 the system stays single-component and supports a composite fermion Fermi sea before transitioning into a ν=1/2 fractional quantum Hall state, presumably, the two-component Ψ331 state.