Valley-Tunable Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall State in the Lowest Landau Level of an Anisotropic System.

Fractional quantum Hall states (FQHSs) at even-denominator Landau level filling factors (ν) are of prime interest as they are predicted to host exotic, topological states of matter. We report here the observation of a FQHS at ν=1/2 in a two-dimensional electron system of exceptionally high quality, confined to a wide AlAs quantum well, where the electrons can occupy multiple conduction-band valleys with an anisotropic effective mass. The anisotropy and multivalley degree of freedom offer an unprecedented tunability of the ν=1/2 FQHS as we can control both the valley occupancy via the application of in-plane strain, and the ratio between the strengths of the short- and long-range Coulomb interaction by tilting the sample in the magnetic field to change the electron charge distribution. Thanks to this tunability, we observe phase transitions from a compressible Fermi liquid to an incompressible FQHS and then to an insulating phase as a function of tilt angle. We find that this evolution and the energy gap of the ν=1/2 FQHS depend strongly on valley occupancy.

Robust Quantum Hall Ferromagnetism near a Gate-Tuned ν=1 Landau Level Crossing.

In a low-disorder two-dimensional electron system, when two Landau levels of opposite spin or pseudospin cross at the Fermi level, the dominance of the exchange energy can lead to a ferromagnetic, quantum Hall ground state whose gap is determined by the exchange energy and has skyrmions as its excitations. This is normally achieved via applying either hydrostatic pressure or uniaxial strain. We study here a very high-quality, low-density, two-dimensional hole system, confined to a 30-nm-wide (001) GaAs quantum well, in which the two lowest-energy Landau levels can be gate tuned to cross at and near filling factor ν=1. As we tune the field position of the crossing from one side of ν=1 to the other by changing the hole density, the energy gap for the quantum Hall state at ν=1 remains exceptionally large, and only shows a small dip near the crossing. The gap overall follows a sqrt[B] dependence, expected for the exchange energy. Our data are consistent with a robust quantum Hall ferromagnet as the ground state.

Thermal and Quantum Melting Phase Diagrams for a Magnetic-Field-Induced Wigner Solid.

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.

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in gallium arsenide quantum wells.

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistances (NLMRs) have been recently observed in a variety of topological materials and often considered to be associated with Weyl fermions that have a defined chirality. Here we report NLMRs in non-Weyl GaAs quantum wells. In the absence of a magnetic field the quantum wells show a transition from semiconducting-like to metallic behaviour with decreasing temperature. We observe pronounced NLMRs up to 9 Tesla at temperatures above the transition and weak NLMRs in low magnetic fields at temperatures close to the transition and below 5 K. The observed NLMRs show various types of magnetic field behaviour resembling those reported in topological materials. We attribute them to microscopic disorder and use a phenomenological three-resistor model to account for their various features. Our results showcase a contribution of microscopic disorder in the occurrence of unusual phenomena. They may stimulate further work on tuning electronic properties via disorder/defect nano-engineering.

Erratum: Direct observation of composite fermions and their fully-spin-polarized Fermi sea near ν=5/2 [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 256601 (2018)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.256601.

Direct Observation of Composite Fermions and Their Fully-Spin-Polarized Fermi Sea near ν=5/2.

The enigmatic even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state at Landau level filling factor ν=5/2 is arguably the most promising candidate for harboring Majorana quasiparticles with non-Abelian statistics and, thus, of potential use for topological quantum computing. The theoretical description of the ν=5/2 state is generally believed to involve a topological p-wave pairing of fully-spin-polarized composite fermions through their condensation into a non-Abelian Moore-Read Pfaffian state. There is, however, no direct and conclusive experimental evidence for the existence of composite fermions near ν=5/2 or for an underlying fully-spin-polarized Fermi sea. Here, we report the observation of composite fermions very near ν=5/2 through geometric resonance measurements and find that the measured Fermi wave vector provides direct demonstration of a Fermi sea with full spin polarization. This lends crucial credence to the model of 5/2 fractional quantum Hall effect as a topological p-wave paired state of composite fermions.

Unconventional Anisotropic Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall State in a System with Mass Anisotropy.

The fractional quantum Hall state (FQHS) observed at a half-filled Landau level in an interacting two-dimensional electron system (2DES) is among the most exotic states of matter as its quasiparticles are expected to be Majorana excitations with non-Abelian statistics. We demonstrate here the unexpected presence of such a state in a novel 2DES with a strong band-mass anisotropy. The FQHS we observe has unusual characteristics. While its Hall resistance is well quantized at low temperatures, it exhibits highly anisotropic in-plane transport resembling compressible stripe or nematic charge-density-wave phases. More striking, the anisotropy sets in suddenly below a critical temperature, suggesting a finite-temperature phase transition. Our observations highlight how anisotropy modifies the many-body phases of a 2DES, and should further fuel the discussion surrounding the enigmatic even-denominator FQHS.

Nano Josephson superconducting tunnel junctions in YBa2Cu3O(7-δ) directly patterned with a focused helium ion beam.

Since the discovery of the high-transition-temperature superconductors (HTSs), researchers have explored many methods to fabricate superconducting tunnel junctions from these materials for basic science purposes and applications. HTS circuits operating at liquid-nitrogen temperatures (∼77 K) would significantly reduce power requirements in comparison with those fabricated from conventional superconductors. The difficulty is that the superconducting coherence length is very short and anisotropic in these materials, typically ∼2 nm in the a-b plane and ∼0.2 nm along the c axis. The electrical properties of Josephson junctions are therefore sensitive to chemical variations and structural defects on atomic length scales. To make multiple uniform HTS junctions, control at the atomic level is required. In this Letter we demonstrate all-HTS Josephson superconducting tunnel junctions created by using a 500-pm-diameter focused beam of helium ions to directly write tunnel barriers into YBa2Cu3O(7-δ) (YBCO) thin films. We demonstrate the ability to control the barrier properties continuously from conducting to insulating by varying the irradiation dose. This technique could provide a reliable and reproducible pathway for scaling up quantum-mechanical circuits operating at liquid-nitrogen temperatures, as well as an avenue to conduct novel planar superconducting tunnelling studies for basic science.