Inter-Landau-level skyrmions versus quasielectrons in the nu=2 quantum Hall effect

Abstract

We consider the charged excitations in the quantum Hall effect with a large Zeeman splitting at filling factor nu=2. When the Zeeman splitting is increased over a critical value the groundstate undergoes a first order phase transition from a paramagnetic to a ferromagnetic phase. We have studied the possibility to form charged spin-textured excitations, "inter Landau level Skyrmions", close to this transition and find that these never are the lowest lying charged excitations but can under certain conditions provide an effective driving mechanism for the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition. We show that the charged excitations inevitably present in the system can act as nucleation centers even at T=0 and hence set a specific limit for the maximal hysteresis attainable in this case. Calculations of how the finite width of the two-dimensional electron gas affects the nu=2 phase transition and the polarization at higher filling factors are also presented.

4 pages, 1 figure. Published version. A few more equations have been added and the critical densities for full polarization in AlAs have been corrected (the previous values assumed a slightly wrong dielectric constant)

References in corpus (1)

• Anomalous spin-splitting of two-dimensional electrons in an AlAs Quantum Well

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Resistance Spikes at Transitions between Quantum Hall Ferromagnets
• Resistance spikes and domain wall loops in Ising quantum Hall ferromagnets
• Multiple Phases with the Same Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Subband System
• Orbital and interlayer Skyrmions crystals in bilayer graphene
• Tilt-Induced Phase Transitions in Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall States at the ZnO Interface
• Transport gap and hysteretic behavior of the Ising quantum Hall ferromagnets in Landau levels $\left|N\right|>0$ of bilayer graphene