Tuning the effects of Landau-level mixing on anisotropic transport in quantum Hall systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how externally tuning Landau-level mixing affects the formation of anisotropic, charge density wave states in quantum Hall systems, revealing potential new ordered phases relevant to recent experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a Landau theory for coupled charge density wave order influenced by Landau level mixing, especially via Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and maps the resulting phase diagram.

Findings

Landau-level mixing can induce coupled charge density wave order.

Phase diagram shows possible striped or triangular charge density wave phases.

Results are relevant to understanding transport anisotropy in quantum Hall experiments.

Abstract

Electron-electron interactions in half-filled high Landau levels in two-dimensional electron gases in a strong perpendicular magnetic field can lead to states with anisotropic longitudinal resistance. This longitudinal resitance is generally believed to arise from broken rotational invariance, which is indicated by charge density wave (CDW) order in Hartree-Fock calculations. We use the Hartree-Fock approximation to study the influence of externally tuned Landau level mixing on the formation of interaction induced states that break rotational invariance in two-dimensional electron and hole systems. We focus on the situation when there are two non-interacting states in the vicinity of the Fermi level and construct a Landau theory to study coupled charge density wave order that can occur as interactions are tuned and the filling or mixing are varied. We examine in detail a specific example where mixing is tuned externally through Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We calculate the phase diagram and find the possibility of ordering involving coupled striped or triangular charge density waves in the two levels. Our results may be relevant to recent transport experiments on quantum Hall nematics in which Landau-level mixing plays an important role.