TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermal and Quantum Melting Phase Diagrams for a Magnetic-Field-Induced Wigner Solid
AU - Ma, Meng K.
AU - Villegas Rosales, K. A.
AU - Deng, H.
AU - Chung, Y. J.
AU - Pfeiffer, L. N.
AU - West, K. W.
AU - Baldwin, K. W.
AU - Winkler, R.
AU - Shayegan, M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge support by the DOE BES (No. DE-FG02-00-ER45841) Grant for measurements, and the NSF (Grants No. DMR 1709076, No. MRSEC DMR 1420541, and No. ECCS 1906253), and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative (Grant No. GBMF9615) for sample fabrication and characterization. M. S. also acknowledges a QuantEmX travel grant from Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. GBMF5305. We thank J. K. Jain and L. W. Engel for illuminating discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Physical Society.
PY - 2020/7/17
Y1 - 2020/7/17
N2 - A sufficiently large perpendicular magnetic field quenches the kinetic (Fermi) energy of an interacting two-dimensional (2D) system of fermions, making them susceptible to the formation of a Wigner solid (WS) phase in which the charged carriers organize themselves in a periodic array in order to minimize their Coulomb repulsion energy. In low-disorder 2D electron systems confined to modulation-doped GaAs heterostructures, signatures of a magnetic-field-induced WS appear at low temperatures and very small Landau level filling factors (ν≃1/5). In dilute GaAs 2D hole systems, on the other hand, thanks to the larger hole effective mass and the ensuing Landau level mixing, the WS forms at relatively higher fillings (ν≃1/3). Here we report our measurements of the fundamental temperature vs filling phase diagram for the 2D holes' WS-liquid thermal melting. Moreover, via changing the 2D hole density, we also probe their Landau level mixing vs filling WS-liquid quantum melting phase diagram. We find our data to be in good agreement with the results of very recent calculations, although intriguing subtleties remain.
AB - A sufficiently large perpendicular magnetic field quenches the kinetic (Fermi) energy of an interacting two-dimensional (2D) system of fermions, making them susceptible to the formation of a Wigner solid (WS) phase in which the charged carriers organize themselves in a periodic array in order to minimize their Coulomb repulsion energy. In low-disorder 2D electron systems confined to modulation-doped GaAs heterostructures, signatures of a magnetic-field-induced WS appear at low temperatures and very small Landau level filling factors (ν≃1/5). In dilute GaAs 2D hole systems, on the other hand, thanks to the larger hole effective mass and the ensuing Landau level mixing, the WS forms at relatively higher fillings (ν≃1/3). Here we report our measurements of the fundamental temperature vs filling phase diagram for the 2D holes' WS-liquid thermal melting. Moreover, via changing the 2D hole density, we also probe their Landau level mixing vs filling WS-liquid quantum melting phase diagram. We find our data to be in good agreement with the results of very recent calculations, although intriguing subtleties remain.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.036601
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.036601
M3 - Article
C2 - 32745416
AN - SCOPUS:85089046402
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 125
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 3
M1 - 036601
ER -