Quasi-quantized Hall response in bulk InAs

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation of quasi-quantized Hall features in bulk InAs, supporting the idea that 3D QQHE can occur in simple bulk materials with small Fermi surfaces under strong magnetic fields.

Contribution

It demonstrates the presence of quasi-quantized Hall features in bulk InAs, confirming theoretical predictions that 3D QQHE can be observed in non-layered, cubic crystal materials.

Findings

Quasi-quantized plateau-like features observed in InAs Hall conductivity.

Onset of plateau scales with ^{z} in units of conductance quantum.

Presence of Shubnikov-de Haas minima correlates with plateau features.

Abstract

The quasi-quantized Hall effect (QQHE) is the three-dimensional (3D) counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE),exhibited only by two-dimensional (2D) electron systems. It has recently been observed in layered materials, consisting of stacks of weakly coupled 2D platelets that are yet characterized by a 3D anisotropic Fermi surface. However, it is predicted that the quasi-quantized 3D version of the 2D QHE should occur in a much broader class of bulk materials, regardless of the underlying crystal structure. Here, we compare the observation of quasi-quantized plateau-like features in the Hall conductivity of then-type bulk semiconductor InAs with the predictions for the 3D QQHE in presence of parabolic electron bands. InAs takes form of a cubic crystal without any low-dimensional substructure. The onset of the plateau-like feature in the Hall conductivity scales with $\sqrt{2/3}k_{F}^{z}/\pi$ in units of the conductance quantum and is accompanied by a Shubnikov-de Haas minimum in the longitudinal resistivity, consistent wit the results of calculations. This confirms the suggestion that the 3D QQHE may be a generic effect directly observable in materials with small Fermi surfaces, placed in sufficiently strong magnetic fields