Chiral edge states and the network model of the integer quantum Hall effect

Electron ground states which exhibit the quantized Hall effect have the characteristic properties of having an energy gap in the bulk but allowing for gapless electronic excitations along the edge of the sample. Furthermore, charge transport along the edge occurs only along one direction (clockwise or anti-clockwise depending upon the direction of the applied magnetic field), leading to a novel one-dimensional interacting quantum liquid. Recent experiments (D.P. Druist et al., Physical Review Letters 80, 365 (1988)) have been able to study a large number of quantum Hall states are stacked atop each other: the edge states now form a two-dimensional electronic sheath on the surface of a "cylinder". Papers 1 and 2 below explore the effects of disorder on this novel two-dimensional chiral metal, and make a number of predictions for experiments.

Paper 3 explores the effects of interactions between two such counter-propagating edge states, and relates the results to measurements of the tunneling current between the states carried out by W. Kang, H.L. Stormer, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. Baldwin, K.W. West, Nature, 403, 59 (2000).

PAPERS

  1. Scaling and crossover functions for the conductance in the directed network model of edge states, I. Gruzberg, N. Read, and S. Sachdev, Physical Review B 55, 10593 (1997); cond-mat/9612038.
  2. Conductance and its universal fluctuations in the directed network model at the crossover to the quasi-one-dimensional regime, I. Gruzberg, N. Read, and S. Sachdev, Physical Review B 56, 13218 (1997); cond-mat/9704032.
  3. Tunneling gap of laterally separated quantum Hall systems, M. Kollar and S. Sachdev, Physical Review B 65, 121304 (2002); cond-mat/0106001.
NEXT ; PREVIOUS ; CATEGORIES