Ensemble Density Functional Approach to Charge-Spin Textures in Inhomogeneous Quantum Hall Systems

TL;DR

This paper extends an ensemble density functional method to include non-collinear spins, enabling the study of charge-spin textures and edge reconstructions in inhomogeneous quantum Hall systems, revealing spin rotations at edges.

Contribution

The work introduces a non-collinear spin extension to the ensemble density functional approach for quantum Hall systems, allowing detailed analysis of charge-spin textures and edge phenomena.

Findings

Edge reconstruction occurs with spin rotations at the system's edge.

Soft confining potentials lead to non-trivial spin-charge textures.

Spin textures depend on the confining potential's stiffness.

Abstract

We extend our ensemble density functional approach to quantum Hall systems to include non-collinear spins to study charge-spin textures in inhomogeneous quantum Hall systems. We have studied the edge reconstruction in quantum dots at unit bulk filling factor and at 1/3 bulk filling factor as a function of the stiffness of an external confining potential. For soft enough edges, these systems reconstruct to a state in which the electron spins rotate gently as the edge is approached, with a non-trivial spin-charge texture at the edge of the system.