Tuning energy relaxation along quantum Hall channels

The chiral edge channels in the quantum Hall regime are considered ideal ballistic quantum channels, and have quantum information processing potentialities. Here, we demonstrate experimentally, at a filling factor of ν(L)=2, the efficient tuning of the energy relaxation that limits quantum coherence and permits the return toward equilibrium. Energy relaxation along an edge channel is controllably enhanced by increasing its transmission toward a floating Ohmic contact, in quantitative agreement with predictions. Moreover, by forming a closed inner edge channel loop, we freeze energy exchanges in the outer channel. This result also elucidates the inelastic mechanisms at work at ν(L)=2, informing us, in particular, that those within the outer edge channel are negligible.     

声子晶体中的多重拓扑相

研究了圆环型波导依照蜂窝结构排列的声子晶体系统中的拓扑相变.利用晶格结构的点群对称性实现赝自旋,并在圆环中引入旋转气流来打破时间反演对称性.通过紧束缚近似模型计算的解析结果表明,没有引入气流时,调节几何参数,系统存在普通绝缘体和量子自旋霍尔效应绝缘体两个相;引入气流后,可以实现新的时间反演对称性破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应相,而增大气流强度,则可以实现量子反常霍尔效应相.这三个拓扑相可以通过自旋陈数来分类.通过有限元软件模拟了多个系统中边界态的传播,发现不同于量子自旋霍尔效应相,量子反常霍尔相系统的表面只支持一种自旋的边界态,并且它无需时间反演对称性保护.     

Hard-core Hall tube in superconducting circuits

The Hall tube as a minimum model to simulate the integer quantum Hall effect is essential for exploring topological physics, while it has not been constructed in the recent developing successfully experiments on superconducting circuits. In this work, we propose a feasible experiment scheme using three legs superconducting circuits with transmon qubits to realize a Hall tube. Then we first investigate its topological properties. Since the time-reversal, particle-hole, and chiral symmetries are all broken for the system, the Hall tube belongs to the A class of the Altland-Zirnbauer classification. We obtain the corresponding topological phase transition both numerically and analytically. Since the chirality is a key character of the quantum Hall effect, we secondly investigate the chiral physics in the Hall tube. We find the topological protected chiral edge currents and discuss its robustness. Finally, we give the possible experimental observations of the topological state and topological protected chiral edge currents.     

High frequency properties of resonant tunneling diode

The small signal analysis for the resonant tunneling diode (RTD) is carried out by using a semiclassical transport theory. Multiple scattering effects are accounted for in an optical approximation by using a complex mean free path. An analytical expression for the conduction current is given. The results show that the negative differential conductance prevails up to the frequency f₀ limited by the quantum well transit time. The imaginary part of the admittance can be presented by a series inductance as has been recently found experimentally. In addition, the equivalent circuit has a capacitor in parallel with the conductance-inductance branch. Above f₀ the admittance shows an oscillatory behaviour. The oscillations are associated with the quantum well transit time resonances.     

The quantum anomalous Hall effect on a star lattice with spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field

We study a star lattice with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field and find that there is a quantum anomalous Hall effect in this system, and that there are five energy gaps at Dirac points and quadratic band crossing points. We calculate the Berry curvature distribution and obtain the Hall conductivity (Chern number ν) quantized as integers, and find that ν?=-?1,2,1,1,2 when the Fermi level lies in these five gaps. Our model can be viewed as a general quantum anomalous Hall system and, in limit cases, can give what the honeycomb lattice and kagome lattice give. We also find that there is a nearly flat band with ν?=?1 which may provide an opportunity for realizing the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect. Finally, the chiral edge states on a zigzag star lattice are given numerically, to confirm the topological property of this system.     

Evidence for skyrmion crystallization from NMR relaxation experiments

A resistively detected NMR technique was used to probe the two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well. The spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T(1)) was extracted at near complete filling of the first Landau level by electrons. The nuclear spin of (75)As is found to relax much more efficiently with T --> 0 and when a well developed quantum Hall state with R(xx) approximately 0 occurs. The data show a remarkable correlation between the nuclear spin relaxation and localization. This suggests that the magnetic ground state near complete filling of the first Landau level may contain a lattice of topological spin texture, i.e., a Skyrmion crystal.     

A Hall effect without well-defined quasiparticles

Using a simple model of long-range impurity scattering, we illustrate how different transport and Hall relaxation rates may arise when the electron quasiparticle picture breaks down. We show how a broad and incoherent spectral function requires the use of a quantum version of the Boltzmann equation. This leads to unusual transport properties, in particular, a Hall relaxation rate which is independent of the quasiparticle scattering rate.     

Particle-hole symmetric Luttinger liquids in a quantum Hall circuit

We report current transmission data through a split-gate constriction fabricated onto a two-dimensional electron system in the integer quantum Hall (QH) regime. Split-gate biasing drives interedge backscattering and is shown to lead to suppressed or enhanced transmission, in marked contrast to the expected linear Fermi-liquid behavior. This evolution is described in terms of particle-hole symmetry and allows us to conclude that an unexpected class of gate-controlled particle-hole-symmetric chiral Luttinger liquids (CLLs) can exist at the edges of our QH circuit. These results highlight the role of particle-hole symmetry on the properties of CLL edge states.     

Goldstone mode relaxation in a quantum hall ferromagnet due to hyperfine interaction with nuclei

Spin relaxation in quantum Hall ferromagnet regimes is studied. As the initial non-equilibrium state, a coherent deviation of the spin system from the B direction is considered and the breakdown of this Goldstone-mode state due to hyperfine coupling to nuclei is analyzed. The relaxation occurring non-exponentially with time is studied in terms of annihilation processes in the “Goldstone condensate” formed by “zero spin excitons”. The relaxation rate is calculated analytically even if the initial deviation is not small. This relaxation channel competes with the relaxation mechanisms due to spin-orbit coupling, and at strong magnetic fields it becomes dominating.     

Photoexcitation in two-dimensional topological insulators

One of the most fascinating challenges in Physics is the realization of an electron-based counterpart of quantum optics, which requires the capability to generate and control single electron wave packets. The edge states of quantum spin Hall (QSH) systems, i.e., two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators realized in HgTe/CdTe and InAs/GaSb quantum wells, may turn the tide in the field, as they do not require the magnetic field that limits the implementations based on quantum Hall effect. However, the band structure of these topological states, described by a massless Dirac fermion Hamiltonian, prevents electron photoexcitation via the customary vertical electric dipole transitions of conventional optoelectronics. So far, proposals to overcome this problem are based on magnetic dipole transitions induced via Zeeman coupling by circularly polarised radiation, and are limited by the g-factor. Alternatively, optical transitions can be induced from the edge states to the bulk states, which are not topologically protected though.Here we show that an electric pulse, localized in space and/or time and applied at a QSH edge, can photoexcite electron wavepackets by intra-branch electrical transitions, without invoking the bulk states or the Zeeman coupling. Such wavepackets are spin-polarised and propagate in opposite directions, with a density profile that is independent of the initial equilibrium temperature and that does not exhibit dispersion, as a result of the linearity of the spectrum and of the chiral anomaly characterising massless Dirac electrons. We also investigate the photoexcited energy distribution and show how, under appropriate circumstances, minimal excitations (Levitons) are generated. Furthermore, we show that the presence of a Rashba spin–orbit coupling can be exploited to tailor the shape of photoexcited wavepackets. Possible experimental realizations are also discussed.     

Is the chiral Luttinger liquid exponent universal?

We present experimental evidence from electron tunneling measurements that the chiral Luttinger liquid power-law exponent, α, for tunneling into the fractional quantum Hall edge deviates substantially from the universal behavior predicted by theory. Our results suggest that the existing standard analyses based on effective Chern–Simon field theories deserve careful reexamination when applied to the dynamics at the Hall fluid edge. To cite this article: A.M. Chang, C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 677–684.     

Partition noise and statistics in the fractional quantum hall effect

A microscopic theory of current partition in fractional quantum Hall liquids, described by chiral Luttinger liquids, is developed to compute the noise correlations, using the Keldysh technique. In this Hanbury-Brown and Twiss geometry, at Laughlin filling factors nu = 1/3, the real time noise correlator exhibits oscillations which persist over larger time scales than that of an uncorrelated Hall fluid. The zero frequency noise correlations are negative at filling factor 1/3 as for bare electrons (antibunching), but are strongly reduced in amplitude. These correlations become positive (bunching) for nu < or = 1/5, suggesting a tendency towards bosonic behavior.     

Observation of intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect

We report observation of intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect in undoped GaAs multiple quantum wells with a sample temperature of 10 K. A transient ballistic pure spin current is injected by a pair of laser pulses through quantum interference. By time resolving the dynamics of the pure spin current, the momentum relaxation time is deduced, which sets the lower limit of the scattering time between electrons and holes. The transverse charge current generated by the pure spin current via the inverse spin Hall effect is simultaneously resolved. We find that the charge current is generated well before the first electron-hole scattering event. Generation of the transverse current in the scattering-free ballistic transport regime provides unambiguous evidence for the intrinsic inverse spin Hall effect.     

Fractional statistics,Hanbury-Brown and Twiss correlations and the quantum Hall effect

The direct detection of the statistics of the quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect has so far eluded experimental discovery. Here a quantum transport geometry is analyzed, which could provide a link to the fractional statistics via the measurement of low frequency noise correlations. The proposal constitutes an analog of the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss experiment, this time for three chiral edges – one injector edge and two collectors. Luttinger liquid theory reveals that the real time correlator decays much slower than in the case of fermions, and exhibits oscillations with a frequency scale corresponding to the applied bias multiplied by the quasiparticle charge. The zero frequency noise correlations are negative at filling factor 1/3 as for bare electrons (anti-bunching). However they are strongly reduced in amplitude, which constitutes a first evidence of unusual correlations. The noise correlations become positive (suggesting bunching) for ν⩽1/5, however with a much reduced amplitude, when one computes the noise assuming that only the most relevant operators contribute. To cite this article: R. Guyon et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 697–707.     

Correlation-hole induced paired quantum Hall states in the lowest Landau level

A theory is developed for the paired even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states in the lowest Landau level. We show that electrons bind to quantized vortices to form composite fermions, interacting through an exact instantaneous interaction that favors chiral p-wave pairing. There are two canonically dual pairing gap functions related by the bosonic Laughlin wave function (Jastrow factor) due to the correlation holes. We find that the ground state is the Moore-Read Pfaffian in the long-wavelength limit for weak Coulomb interactions, a new Pfaffian with an oscillatory pairing function for intermediate interactions, and a Read-Rezayi composite Fermi liquid beyond a critical interaction strength. Our findings are consistent with recent experimental observations of the 1/2 and 1/4 fractional quantum Hall effects in asymmetric wide quantum wells.     

Two-dimensional topological insulator state and topological phase transition in bilayer graphene

We show that gated bilayer graphene hosts a strong topological insulator (TI) phase in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling. We find that gated bilayer graphene under preserved time-reversal symmetry is a quantum valley Hall insulator for small Rashba SO coupling λ(R), and transitions to a strong TI when λ(R)>√[U(2)+t(⊥)(2)], where U and t(⊥) are, respectively, the interlayer potential and tunneling energy. Different from a conventional quantum spin Hall state, the edge modes of our strong TI phase exhibit both spin and valley filtering, and thus share the properties of both quantum spin Hall and quantum valley Hall insulators. The strong TI phase remains robust in the presence of weak graphene intrinsic SO coupling.     

Nonabelions in the fractional quantum hall effect

Applications of conformal field theory to the theory of fractional quantum Hall systems are discussed. In particular, Laughlin's wave function and its cousins are interpreted as conformal blocks in certain rational conformal field theories. Using this point of view a hamiltonian is constructed for electrons for which the ground state is known exactly and whose quasihole excitations have nonabelian statistics; we term these objects “nonabelions”. It is argued that universality classes of fractional quantum Hall systems can be characterized by the quantum numbers and statistics of their excitations. The relation between the order parameter in the fractional quantum Hall effect and the chiral algebra in rational conformal field theory is stressed, and new order parameters for several states are given.     

Realization of arbitrary two-qubit quantum gates based on chiral Majorana fermions

Quantum computers are in hot-spot with the potential to handle more complex problems than classical computers can.Realizing the quantum computation requires the universal quantum gate set {T,H,CNOT} so as to perform any unitary transformation with arbitrary accuracy.Here we first briefly review the Majorana fermions and then propose the realization of arbitrary two-qubit quantum gates based on chiral Majorana fermions.Elementary cells consist of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator surrounded by a topological superconductor with electric gates and quantum-dot structures,which enable the braiding operation and the partial exchange operation.After defining a qubit by four chiral Majorana fermions,the singlequbit T and H quantum gates are realized via one partial exchange operation and three braiding operations,respectively.The entangled CNOT quantum gate is performed by braiding six chiral Majorana fermions.Besides,we design a powerful device with which arbitrary two-qubit quantum gates can be realized and take the quantum Fourier transform as an example to show that several quantum operations can be performed with this space-limited device.Thus,our proposal could inspire further utilization of mobile chiral Majorana edge states for faster quantum computation.     

Spin-wave relaxation in a quantum hall ferromagnet

We study spin wave relaxation in quantum Hall ferromagnet regimes. Spin-orbit coupling is considered as a factor determining spin nonconservation, and external random potential as a cause of energy dissipation making spin-flip processes irreversible. We compare this relaxation mechanism with other relaxation channels existing in a quantum Hall ferromagnet. The article is published in the original.