Experimental Evidence of a Directed-Flux Phase of Condensed Matter

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence for a novel directed-flux phase in condensed matter, where electrons in an asymmetric quantum well exhibit spontaneous one-dimensional fluxes and nonzero electric dipole moments due to magnetic field effects.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a directed-flux phase of condensed matter, supported by experimental demonstration of electron fluxes and dipole moments in a tilted magnetic field.

Findings

Electrons show spatial separation based on velocity along Y axis.

Electrons possess nonzero electric dipole moments.

Spontaneous one-dimensional electron fluxes flow in opposite directions.

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally that in an asymmetric quantum well in presence of quantizing magnetic field tilted in XZ plane, confining potential V(z) lifts Landau level degeneracy related to position of the centers of electron cyclotron orbits along X axis. This results in a transformation of the Landau levels into the bands in which the electrons may possess nonzero directed velocity along Y axis. We directly demonstrate that the electrons are spatially separated along X axis depending on their velocity along Y axis that means spontaneous one-dimensional electron fluxes flow in opposite directions along Y axis even within the fully occupied bands. We also directly demonstrate that the electrons possess nonzero electric dipole moment as a result of Lorentz force effect on these one-dimensional fluxes. On the basis of these experiments we put forward the concept of a directed-flux phase of condensed matter.