Quantum Hall Systems

This book presents cutting-edge topics in modern theoretical physics-quantum Hall systems-the subject of two Nobel Prizes in 1985 and 1998.

The fractional quantum Hall effect has opened up a new paradigm in the study of strongly correlated electrons and it has been shown that new concepts, such as fractional statistics, anyon, chiral Luttinger liquid and composite particles, are realized in two-dimensional electron systems. This book explains the quantum Hall effects together with these new concepts starting from elementary quantum mechanics.

After a foreword by Klaus von Klitzing, the first chapters of this book discuss the prehistory and the theoretical basis as well as the implications of the discovery of the Quantum Hall effect on superconductivity, superfluidity, and metrology, including experimentation. The second half of this volume is concerned with the theory of and experiments on the many body problem posed by fractional effect. Specific unsolved problems are mentioned throughout the book and a summary is made in the final chapter. The quantum Hall effect was discovered on about the hundredth anniversary of Hall's original work, and the finding was announced in 1980 by von Klitzing, Dorda and Pepper. Klaus von KIitzing was awarded the 1985 Nobel prize in physics for this discovery.

The discovery of the quantized and fractional Quantum Hall Effect phenomena is among the most important physics findings in the latter half of this century. The precise quantization of the electrical resistance involved in the quantized Hall effect phenomena has led to the new definition of the resistance standard and has metrologically affected all of science and technology. This resource consists of contributions from the top researchers in the field who present recent experimental and theoretical developments. Each chapter is self-contained and includes its own set of references guiding readers to original papers and further reading on the topic.

Enthusiasm for research on the quantum Hall effect (QHE) is unbounded. The QHE is one of the most fascinating and beautiful phenomena in all branches of physics. Tremendous theoretical and experimental developments are still being made in this sphere. Composite bosons, composite fermions and anyons were among distinguishing ideas in the original edition. In the 2nd edition, fantastic phenomena associated with the interlayer phase coherence in the bilayer system were extensively described. The microscopic theory of the QHE was formulated based on the noncommutative geometry. Furthermore, the unconventional QHE in graphene was reviewed, where the electron dynamics can be treated as relativistic Dirac fermions and even the supersymmetric quantum mechanics plays a key role. In this 3rd edition, all chapters are carefully reexamined and updated. A highlight is the new chapter on topological insulators. Indeed, the concept of topological insulator stems from the QHE. Other new topics are recent prominent experimental discoveries in the QHE, provided by the experimentalists themselves in Part V. This new edition presents an instructive and comprehensive overview of the QHE. It is also suitable for an introduction to quantum field theory with vividly described applications. Only knowledge of quantum mechanics is assumed. This book is ideal for students and researchers in condensed matter physics, particle physics, theoretical physics and mathematical physics.

The experimental discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) at the end of 1981 by Tsui, Stormer and Gossard was absolutely unexpected since, at this time, no theoretical work existed that could predict new struc tures in the magnetotransport coefficients under conditions representing the extreme quantum limit. It is more than thirty years since investigations of bulk semiconductors in very strong magnetic fields were begun. Under these conditions, only the lowest Landau level is occupied and the theory predicted a monotonic variation of the resistivity with increasing magnetic field, depending sensitively on the scattering mechanism. However, the ex perimental data could not be analyzed accurately since magnetic freeze-out effects and the transitions from a degenerate to a nondegenerate system complicated the interpretation of the data. For a two-dimensional electron the positive background charge is well separated from the two gas, where dimensional system, magnetic freeze-out effects are barely visible and an analysis of the data in the extreme quantum limit seems to be easier. First measurements in this magnetic field region on silicon field-effect transistors were not successful because the disorder in these devices was so large that all electrons in the lowest Landau level were localized. Consequently, models of a spin glass and finally of a Wigner solid were developed and much effort was put into developing the technology for improving the quality of semi conductor materials and devices, especially in the field of two-dimensional electron systems.

This book provides an overview of recent developments in experiments probing the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states of the second Landau level, especially the \nu=5/2 state. It summarizes the state-of-the-art understanding of these FQH states. It furthermore describes how the properties of the FQH states can be probed experimentally, by investigating tunneling and confinement properties. The progress towards the realization of an experiment, allowing to probe the potentially non-Abelian statistics of the quasiparticle excitations at \nu=5/2 is discussed. The book is intended as a reference for graduate students, PostDocs and researchers starting in the field. The experimental part of this book gives practical advice for solving the experimental challenges which researchers studying highly fragile FQH states are faced with.

A pedagogical and self-contained discussion on monolayer and bilayer quantum Hall systems is given in this volume in a field-theoretical framework, with an introduction to quantum field theory, anyon physics and Chem-Simons gauge theory.