Transport of Surface States in the Bulk Quantum Hall Effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transport properties of surface states in multilayer quantum Hall systems, revealing ballistic and diffusive behaviors, and examines the impact of dephasing effects through numerical modeling and experimental relevance.

Contribution

It introduces a network model to analyze surface state transport in multilayer quantum Hall systems, highlighting the role of localization and dephasing effects.

Findings

Two-terminal conductance shows mesoscopic fluctuations.

Localization effects become significant with many layers.

Dephasing influences surface state transport in experiments.

Abstract

The two-dimensional surface of a coupled multilayer integer quantum Hall system consists of an anisotropic chiral metal. This unusual metal is characterized by ballistic motion transverse and diffusive motion parallel (\hat{z}) to the magnetic field. Employing a network model, we calculate numerically the phase coherent two-terminal z-axis conductance and its mesoscopic fluctuations. Quasi-1d localization effects are evident in the limit of many layers. We consider the role of inelastic de-phasing effects in modifying the transport of the chiral surface sheath, discussing their importance in the recent experiments of Druist et al.