Composite Fermion Fermi 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.

Composite Fermion Pairing Induced by Landau Level Mixing.

Pairing of composite fermions provides a possible mechanism for fractional quantum Hall effect at even denominator fractions and is believed to serve as a platform for realizing quasiparticles with non-Abelian braiding statistics. We present results from fixed-phase diffusion MonteCarlo calculations which predict that substantial Landau level mixing can induce a pairing of composite fermions at filling factors ν=1/2 and ν=1/4 in the l=-3 relative angular momentum channel, thereby destabilizing the composite-fermion Fermi seas to produce non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall 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.

Quantitative theory of composite fermions in Bose-Fermi mixtures at ν=1

Composite fermions provide a simple and unified picture to understand a vast amount of phenomenology in the quantum Hall regime. However it has remained challenging to formulate this concept properly within a single Landau level. Recently a low-energy noncommutative field theory for bosons at Landau-level filling factor $\nu=1$ has been formulated by Dong and Senthil. In the limit of long-wavelength and small-amplitude gauge fluctuation, they found it reduces to the celebrated Halperin-Lee-Read theory of composite fermion liquid. In this work we consider a Bose-Fermi mixture at total filling factor $\nu=1$. Different from previous work, the number density of composite fermions in the mixture and corresponding Fermi momentum can be tuned by changing the filling factor of bosons, $\nu_b = 1 -\nu_f$. This tunability enables us to study the dilute limit $\nu_b\ll 1$, which allows for a controlled and asymptotically exact calculation of the energy dispersion and effective mass of composite fermions. Furthermore, the approximation of the low-energy description by a commutative field theory is manifestly justified. Most importantly, we demonstrate gauge fluctuations acquire a Higgs mass due to the presence of a composite boson condensate, as a result of which the system behaves like a genuine Landau Fermi liquid. Combined with the irrelevance of four-fermion interaction in the dilute limit, we are able to obtain asymptotically exact properties of this composite fermion Fermi liquid. In the opposite limit of $\nu_f\ll 1$, the Higgs mass goes to zero and we find crossover between Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid as temperature increases. Observing these properties either experimentally or numerically provides unambiguous evidence of not only the composite fermions and the Fermi surface they form, but also the presence of emergent gauge fields and their fluctuations due to strong correlation.

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.

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.

Pomeranchuk Instability of Composite Fermi Liquids.

Nematicity in quantum Hall systems has been experimentally well established at excited Landau levels. The mechanism of the symmetry breaking, however, is still unknown. Pomeranchuk instability of Fermi liquid parameter F_{ℓ}≤-1 in the angular momentum ℓ=2 channel has been argued to be the relevant mechanism, yet there are no definitive theoretical proofs. Here we calculate, using the variational MonteCarlo technique, Fermi liquid parameters F_{ℓ} of the composite fermion Fermi liquid with a finite layer width. We consider F_{ℓ} in different Landau levels n=0, 1, 2 as a function of layer width parameter η. We find that unlike the lowest Landau level, which shows no sign of Pomeranchuk instability, higher Landau levels show nematic instability below critical values of η. Furthermore, the critical value η_{c} is higher for the n=2 Landau level, which is consistent with observation of nematic order in ambient conditions only in the n=2 Landau levels. The picture emerging from our work is that approaching the true 2D limit brings half-filled higher Landau-level systems to the brink of nematic Pomeranchuk instability.

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.

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 $k^{*\downarrow}_{\rm F}=\sqrt{4\pi\rho^{\downarrow}_e}$.

Composite fermions in bands with N -fold rotational symmetry

We study the effect of band anisotropy with discrete rotational symmetry $C_N$ (where $N\ge 2$) in the quantum Hall regime of two-dimensional electron systems. We focus on the composite Fermi liquid (CFL) at half filling of the lowest Landau level. We find that the magnitude of anisotropy transferred to the composite fermions decreases very rapidly with $N$. We demonstrate this by performing density matrix normalization group calculations on the CFL, and comparing the anisotropy of the composite fermion Fermi contour with that of the (non-interacting) electron Fermi contour at zero magnetic field. We also show that the effective interaction between the electrons after projecting into a single Landau level is much less anisotropic than the band, a fact which does not depend on filling and thus has implications for other quantum Hall states as well. Our results confirm experimental observations on anisotropic bands with warped Fermi contours, where the only detectable effect on the composite Fermi contour is an elliptical distortion ($N = 2$).

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.

Fractional quantum Hall states versus Wigner crystals in wide quantum wells in the half-filled lowest and second Landau levels

We investigate numerically different phases that can occur at half filling in the lowest and the first excited Landau levels in wide-well twodimensional electron systems exposed to a perpendicular magnetic field. Within a twocomponent model that takes into account only the two lowest electronic subbands of the quantum well, we derive a phase diagram that compares favorably with an experimental one by Shabani et al. [Phys. Rev. B 88, 245413 (2013)]. In addition to the compressible composite-fermion Fermi liquid in narrow wells with a substantial subband gap and the incompressible twocomponent (331) Halperin state, we identify in the lowest Landau level a rectangular Wigner crystal occupying the second subband. This crystal may be the origin of the experimentally observed insulating phase in the limit of wide wells and high electronic densities. In the second Landau level, the incompressible Pfaffian state, which occurs in narrow wells and large subband gaps, is also separated by an intermediate region from a large-well limit in which a similar rectangular Wigner crystal in the excited subband is the ground state, as for the lowest Landau level. However, the intermediate region is characterized by an incompressible state that consists of two four-flux Pfaffians in each of the components.

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.