Two-dimensional electron system in high magnetic fields: Wigner crystal vs. composite-fermion liquid

Abstract

The two dimensional system of electrons in a high magnetic field offers an opportunity to investigate a phase transition from a quantum liquid into a Wigner solid. Recent experiments have revealed an incipient composite fermion liquid in a parameter range where theory and many experiments had previously suggested the Wigner crystal phase, thus calling into question our current understanding. This Letter shows how very small quantitative corrections (< 1%) in the energy due to the weak interaction between composite fermions can cause a fundamental change in the nature of the ground state, thus providing insight into the puzzling experimental results.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Composite Fermions in the Hilbert Space of the Lowest Electronic Landau Level
• Transition from an electron solid to the sequence of fractional quantum Hall states at very low Landau level filling factor
• Theoretical Search for Nested Quantum Hall Effect of Composite Fermions
• Wigner Crystals in the lowest Landau level at low filling factors
• Variational quantum Monte Carlo study of two-dimensional Wigner crystals: exchange, correlation, and magnetic field effects

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Microscopic verification of topological electron-vortex binding in the lowest-Landau-level crystal state
• Competing Crystal Phases in the Lowest Landau Level
• Structural properties of electrons in quantum dots in high magnetic fields: Crystalline character of cusp states and excitation spectra
• Interplay between fractional quantum Hall liquid and crystal phases at low filling
• Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in the Second Landau Level: the Importance of Inter-Composite-Fermion Interaction
• Composite-fermion crystallites in quantum dots
• Spin-dependent Rotating Wigner Molecules in Quantum dots
• Flavor altering excitations of composite fermions
• Symmetry breaking and Wigner molecules in few-electron quantum dots
• States of interacting composite fermions at Landau level fillig $\nu =2+3/8$
• Phase diagram for quantum Hall states in graphene
• Analytical Theory of Strongly Correlated Wigner Crystals in the Lowest Landau Level
• Exotic Bilayer Crystals in a Strong Magnetic Field
• Evidence for Topological Protection Derived from Six-Flux Composite Fermions
• Disorder-induced strong-field strong-localization in 2D systems
• Spectroscopy of soft modes and quantum phase transitions in coupled electron bilayers