Cyclotron Orbits of Composite Fermions in the Fractional Quantum Hall Regime

Insun Jo, Hao Deng, Yang Liu, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West, K. W. Baldwin, M. Shayegan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study a bilayer GaAs hole system that hosts two distinct many-body phases at low temperatures and high perpendicular magnetic fields. The higher-density (top) layer develops a Fermi sea of composite fermions (CFs) in its half-filled lowest Landau level, while the lower-density (bottom) layer forms a Wigner crystal (WC) as its filling becomes very small. Owing to the interlayer interaction, the CFs in the top layer feel the periodic Coulomb potential of the WC in the bottom layer. We measure the magnetoresistance of the top layer while changing the bottom-layer density. As the WC layer density increases, the resistance peaks separating the adjacent fractional quantum Hall states in the top layer change nonmonotonically and attain maximum values when the cyclotron orbit of the CFs encloses one WC lattice point. These features disappear at T=275 mK when the WC melts. The observation of such geometric resonance features is unprecedented and surprising as it implies that the CFs retain a well-defined cyclotron orbit and Fermi wave vector even deep in the fractional quantum Hall regime, far from half-filling.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number016802
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume120
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 4 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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