# Memorization of short-range potential fluctuations in Landau levels

## Abstract

We calculate energy spectra of a two-dimensional electron system in a perpendicular magnetic field and periodic potentials of short periods. The Coulomb interaction is included within a screened Hartree-Fock approximation. The electrostatic screening is poor and the exchange interaction amplifies the energy dispersion. We obtain, by numerical iterations, self-consistent solutions that have a hysteresis-like property. With increasing amplitude of the external potential the energy dispersion and the electron density become periodic, and they remain stable when the external potential is reduced to zero. We explain this property in physical terms and speculate that a real system could memorize short-range potential fluctuations after the potential has been turned off.

It is well known that in a two-dimensional electron system (2DES), in a strong perpendicular magnetic field and for low temperatures, the exchange component of the Coulomb interaction enhances the spin splitting of the Landau levels when the Fermi level is in a spin gap, i. e. for odd filling factors. The gap enhancement also occurs for even filling factors, and the energy interval between two adjacent (even spin degenerate) Landau levels can exceed the cyclotron energy. More generally, in the presence of an external potential the energy dispersion imposed on the Landau levels may be amplified due to the exchange interaction. The common mechanism of the exchange enhancement, either of the energy gap or of the energy dispersion, is the energy decrease of any occupied state by a negative amount corresponding to the exchange component. The exchange interaction behaves like an attractive short-range potential within distances of the order of the magnetic length $`l=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/(eB)}`$. The exchange energy of a one-particle state may be of the order $`e^2/(\kappa l)`$, where $`\kappa `$ is the dielectric constant of the semiconductor host of the 2DES. For GaAs systems ($`\kappa =12.4`$, $`m_{\text{eff}}=0.067`$, $`g_{\text{eff}}=0.44`$) this energy is comparable to the cyclotron energy, $`\mathrm{}eB/m_{\text{eff}}`$, for $`B`$ about 5 – 10 T, i. e. in the range 5 – 15 meV.

The essential difference between the homogeneous and the inhomogeneous 2DES is the action of the electrostatic screening. In the homogeneous system the screening of the electron-electron interaction, by the 2DES itself, reduces the exchange effects for non-integer filling factors, when the density of states at the Fermi level (DOSF) is finite. In the inhomogeneous system the DOSF decreases due to the energy dispersion, the screening abilities diminish, and the exchange becomes stronger. However, the classical, repulsive, Hartree part of the Coulomb interaction, which is absent in the homogeneous case, tends to suppress the long-range fluctuations of the charge density and to flatten the energy dispersion. Therefore in the presence of an external electrostatic potential, the energy dispersion of the Landau levels is a complicated result of combined and opposite exchange and direct contributions controlled by the potential steepness at the magnetic length scale. Calculations for periodic potentials of periods much longer than $`l`$, within the screened Hartree-Fock approximation (SHFA), have shown Landau bands typically much narrower than the external potential amplitude, i. e. strong screening effects, but still a considerable exchange influence. In this paper we will be interested in the opposite limit, of weak (in amplitude), but steep electrostatic potentials, for which one may expect a much weaker screening, but a much stronger exchange.

Recent experiments show that the spin splitting of the Shubnikov-de Haas peaks in short-period (30 nm) modulated 2DES has an abrupt onset when the magnetic field increases. This agrees with the Hartree-Fock calculations for such a system. Increasing the magnetic field the length $`l`$ decreases, and so does the potential gradient experienced by the electrons in low-energy states. Therefore the wide Landau bands, with strong exchange broadening, and thus with hidden spin splitting, change suddenly into narrow bands, but now with a strong enhancement of the spin gap. According to this interpretation the experiment confirms that exchange effects strongly influence the energy dispersion. The abrupt transition from spin unpolarized to spin polarized states has been initially predicted for narrow quantum wires. A similar transition has been discussed for the edge states, as a direct implication of the single-particle-energy dispersion: for soft edges the edge channels are spatially spin split, but they rapidly collapse and become unpolarized with increasing edge steepness.

We take all these results as indications that the exchange interaction plays an important role in the 2DES in the presence of a strong potential gradient. Our main result is that in a weak periodic electrostatic potential of a short period, for a strong magnetic field, the width of the Landau bands may be larger than the potential amplitude, and robust to amplitude fluctuations. The Landau-band structure, together with the density modulation induced in the 2DES, with the period of the external potential, can survive after the potential has been turned off. We diagonalize the Hamiltonian of the 2DES in the periodic potential $`V_x\mathrm{cos}(K_xx)+V_y\mathrm{cos}(K_yy)`$, within the SHFA, following a numerical iterative process. We consider both 1D and 2D potentials, where in the former case $`V_y=0`$ and $`K_y=0`$. We shall discuss first the results for a 1D potential.

The Coulomb potential in the exchange term of the effective Hamiltonian is $`u(𝐪)=2\pi e^2/[\kappa qϵ(q)]`$, $`ϵ(q)`$ being the static dielectric function of the 2DES, calculated self-consistently with the DOSF, and also with the (less important in our regime) wave-functions polarization. We assume a finite temperature $`T`$, and also a weak disorder broadening of the energy spectrum. The latter we take into account by the familiar ansatz that the spectral function is a Gaussian of width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. All the details of the calculation have been presented in a recent publication. We consider a modulation period $`a_x2\pi /K_x=50`$ nm, and a modulation amplitude arbitrarily fixed in the interval 1.2 meV $`<V_x<8.5`$ meV in the first part of the calculation, until a stable solution is obtained, and then we put $`V_x=0`$, and continue the iterations until the solution is again stable. The final state remains periodically modulated and satisfies the equations of the SHFA, in the absence of any external potential. In Fig. 1 we show the final state: the first four spin split Landau bands in the first Brillouin zone, $`0\xi <a_x`$, where $`\xi `$ is the center coordinate, and one unit cell of the remanent density modulation. The initial potential drives the system into the modulated state and determines the spatial period, which is thus “memorized” by the 2DES after the potential is turned off. The final solution is independent of the initial potential amplitude, within the specified interval.

According to the previous discussion, we identify a quantum screening mechanism, acting on the exchange interaction, and the classical Hartree screening, directly coupling the induced potential to the electron density. Both mechanisms are inhibited in the state displayed in Fig. 1. The steep and stable energy dispersion is the self-consistent result of a strong exchange enhancement and a low DOSF. The Hartree mechanism is expected to restore the homogeneous state after turning the external potential off. But, due to the short period, even if the induced potential is considerable, the classical effect is weak and far from the linear regime. We believe the inhibition of the electrostatic forces is crucial. Neglecting the Hartree term remanent modulations can be obtained for any period. Within our SHFA we could obtain them only up to $`a_x=80`$ nm, while for longer periods the system relaxes into the homogeneous state.

The unusual property of the state of Fig. 1 is the negative dielectric response. The amplitude of the external potential can be exceeded in absolute value by the amplitude of the induced potential. Therefore the total potential (external plus induced) can have maxima where the electron density has maxima. Such over-screening states are known for other (classical or quantum) systems, the stability being always ensured by additional forces. In our case this role is played by the short-range attractive exchange interaction.

In the standard HFA, i. e. without screening the exchange term, for $`K_xl1`$ spontaneous charge-density wave (CDW) instabilities may occur, known for a long time,  with an intrinsic period determined only by $`l`$ and material constants, and which are considered artifacts of the HFA. We want to stress that this type of instability is absent in our SHFA. A new type of CDW ground-states have been recently obtained in a SHFA when many Landau levels are occupied.  In that regime the screening is stronger than in ours, dominated by the wave-functions polarization cumulated from all the occupied levels, and therefore our memorized modulation is no longer stable. However our effect is by no means restricted to the Landau level with $`n=0`$ or to very strong magnetic fields, see below. We could also obtain it in the Landau levels with $`n=1`$ and $`n=2`$.

In Fig. 2 we show, very schematically, what we consider to be the essence of the problem. Suppose we act on the 2DES with a step potential, $`\varphi _0\theta (x)`$. Assume also all the electrons are in the lowest Landau level. Ignoring what happens at the boundaries of the system, we can imagine the Landau level divided into a fully occupied and an empty region, and the energy dispersion concentrated in the interval $`\xi \xi _F<l/2`$. The exchange energy of a single particle state is given by the expression  $`E_\xi =e^2\nu _\xi \sqrt{\pi /2}/(\kappa l)`$, where $`\nu _\xi `$ reduces to the filling factor of the one-particle states if the center coordinate is in a region with no energy dispersion, i. e. 0 or 1. In the Landau gauge the wave functions outside the transition region are Gaussians, $`\mathrm{exp}[(x\xi )^2/2l^2]`$. In the transition region, due to the translational invariance along the $`y`$ direction, the perturbation does not mix the center coordinates, but only the Landau levels, such that the wave functions still have a localized character. For high magnetic fields the Landau level mixing weakens (high energy separation) and $`l`$ decreases. The width of the transition region reduces to $`l`$, and $`\nu _\xi `$ becomes the Fermi function. The electron density must follow a similar step-like profile, and in combination with a positive uniform background, positive and negative charges separate. The induced electric field is thus concentrated in the transition region only, and vanishes outside.

The essential aspect in this idealized situation is that the exchange energy does not depend explicitly on $`\varphi _0`$. The exchange action is reduced to pushing the occupied energy levels even more below the Fermi energy, as soon as a sufficiently strong energy gradient has been imposed. The energy gradient is thus amplified to the value indicated in Fig. 2, since due to the low DOSF the electrons are not able to screen the exchange interaction. Therefore, by suppressing the external potential the state remains stable. For $`B\mathrm{}`$ the induced electric field acts on a vanishing number of particles, and is not capable to restore the homogeneous state. However, for a very weak $`\varphi _0`$ the imposed energy dispersion may be insufficient for being further subjected to the exchange enhancement. In this situation the 2DES would still behave like a homogeneous system, with complex, nearly perfect screening properties, involving also correlation energy. We thus have to imagine the transition occurring only when $`e\varphi _0`$ exceeds a certain threshold energy $`V_t`$. Above this threshold the step potential produces the shearing effect depicted in Fig. 2.

For the 1D periodic potential used for Fig. 1, and for the temperature $`T=0.9`$ K, we obtain $`V_t=1.2`$ meV. With $`V_x<V_t`$ in the initial stage of the calculation the solution converges to the homogeneous state after putting $`V_x=0`$. In terms of the energy per particle, $`E/N`$, this sort of hysteresis effect is described in Fig. 3. The solid line shows the evolution of the energy with increasing external modulation amplitude (when it is maintained through all the iterations). For $`V_x<V_t`$ the system is in the linear screening regime, where the Landau bands are very narrow and the density profile is almost flat, with nearly no difference with respect to the Hartree approximation. For $`V_x=V_t`$ the screening is suddenly suppressed and the exchange interaction lowers the energy abruptly. The Landau bands look qualitatively like in Fig. 1, up to the second discontinuity, at $`V_x=8.5`$ meV. Here the spin split bands rapidly overlap at the Fermi level and thus the exchange energy is again screened. This situation is analog to that detected in the experiments by Petit et al.,  now with a fixed magnetic field. Suppressing here the external potential our solution relaxes towards the homogeneous state. However, by reducing it gradually, and thus making weaker numerical perturbations, the system evolves back into the states with low DOSF, and then continues along the dotted line down to $`V_x=0`$.

$`V_t`$ increases fast with the temperature, as shown by the dash-dotted line of Fig. 3. The reason is that the slope of the Landau band at the Fermi level decreases with increasing $`T`$, and thus again DOSF increases and the strong exchange effect vanishes. However, when that slope exceeds a critical value the temperature has practically no more influence. These are the situations with low DOSF, i. e. the interval between the energy jumps. Nevertheless, the modulated solutions are now less robust if we reduce $`V_x`$ during the calculation, such that we could obtain hysteresis effect only by slowly (adiabatically) reducing $`V_x`$ below $`V_t`$, and we could not reach $`V_x=0`$ in all cases.

The hysteresis effect totally disappears for temperatures slightly above 1.3 K. The effect of the disorder parameter is similar to that of the temperature, since the occupation numbers of the single-particle states depend on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. In all the calculations we have fixed $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.13`$ meV. One could also define a critical disorder parameter, but we only restrict ourselves to stating that slight inhomogeneities do not destroy the hysteresis solution. Another situation with strong screening and no memory effect is when the filling factor is close to an integer value. The DOSF may be above the critical value due to the proximity of a van Hove singularity. The screening effects also increase when the modulation period increases, and again $`V_t`$ grows until the low-DOSF states are no longer stable. Obviously, with decreasing period below the magnetic length all the potential oscillations are averaged and the exchange interaction becomes again unimportant.

In the numerical calculation we have made two simplifications in the screening of the exchange interaction. First, we have used a static screening approximation. The dynamic effects can be estimated within the Coulomb hole approximation which successfully explained experimental luminescence spectra. But the dynamic effects increase the exchange interaction, except only for integer filling factors. Second, we have considered a dielectric function calculated as in the case of a homogeneous system, by taking an average filling factor into account. This is in principle correct for a weakly modulated system, while here one should consider a dielectric matrix. Of course, in this respect our treatment is not fully self-consistent. Such a calculation would be extremely difficult, but we argue that the modulated system treated that way would posses a certain rigidity which makes it less sensitive to electric perturbations, and reduces even the screening effect on the exchange interaction. We thus believe that, in fact, the exchange effects are even underestimated by our approximations.

Another aspect is the energy comparison between the periodic states with no external potential and the homogeneous state. In the SHFA the periodic states have lower energies, Fig. 3. But of course this comparison is irrelevant. For inhomogeneous states SHFA or HFA could be realistic approximations, but not for homogeneous states, where correlation energy is known to be important. Attempting to include correlations beyond the present SHFA only in the homogeneous states, the comparison would be further vitiated by the use of two different Hamiltonians for the same system, with and without the external potential. Nevertheless, we have compared with the energy of the homogeneous state for the lowest, spin-less Landau level, estimated by Fano and Ortolani, and we have found our periodic states having higher energies. For instance for $`B=13`$ T our modulated solution in the lowest (spin up) Landau level gives $`E/N=3.88`$ meV whereas their formula gives $`E/N=2.35`$ meV. This result suggests that the states with remanent density modulations – if they exist – could be meta-stable. Accurate calculations of $`E/N`$ are not available for higher Landau levels, so our comparison is extremely limited. Since in our calculation we do not use any free internal parameter of the system we are also not able to investigate energy minima. All we can do is to check the stability numerically with respect to charge fluctuations, screening, or thermal effects.

We want to mention that the spin plays here no fundamental role. The spin splitting only allows us to obtain a sufficiently low DOSF and thus a sufficiently strong exchange effect. We can obtain remanent modulations with two Landau bands at the Fermi level by reducing $`\kappa `$ and hence by increasing the exchange energy, see Fig. 2. We can also obtain our exchange effects in the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation, where the electron spin is not restricted to have only components parallel or anti parallel to the external magnetic field.

For a 2D external potential, due to the technical difficulties imposed by the magnetic flux commensurability condition, we do not screen the exchange interaction in a self-consistent manner. Instead, we consider a constant Thomas-Fermi wave vector $`q_{TF}=0.2/l`$ in the Coulomb potential. The only qualitative difference with respect to the self-consistent calculations is that the threshold potential $`V_t`$ is drastically reduced. For a symmetric initial potential, $`V_x=V_y`$ and periods $`a_x=a_y`$, the final state preserves the same 2D periodicity, which is just the isotropic version of the results obtained in the 1D case. For an asymmetric initial potential, the final state may have only a 1D symmetry. Such an example is shown in Fig. 5, where $`a_x=50`$ nm and $`a_y=70`$ nm. The energy dispersion is described by the quantum numbers $`\theta _{1,2}`$ given by the momenta in the first magnetic Brillouin zone.  Here we have chosen a magnetic flux equal to one flux quanta per unit cell, such that the sub-band (Hofstadter) splitting is absent. Since the intersection of the Fermi surface with the Landau band is an open contour, only the dispersion in one direction captures single-particle states below the Fermi level, and only the period for this direction is memorized, which here is $`a_y`$. Therefore new types of threshold-amplitude conditions are present with an initial 2D potential, in order to keep in the final electron density the periodicity in the other or in both direction. The initial amplitudes $`V_{x,y}`$ for Fig. 5 have been independently varied within the interval 1 – 2 meV.

In conclusion, we have found a hysteresis property of our periodic numerical solution with respect to the external potential amplitude. We have explained it in physical terms, the key elements being the strong exchange interaction and the poor screening in the presence of steep potentials. Therefore we speculate on our numerical results predicting that acting on a real system with an electrostatic potential with strong gradient at the magnetic length scale it is possible to get shearing of the electron density which remains stable after reducing or even switching off the potential, thus memorizing its short-range fluctuations. Periodic potentials with controlled amplitudes can be obtained with metallic strip gate. The electrical resistance measured perpendicular to the strips should increase in the presence of a gate voltage, and this could be one possibility of probing the hysteresis effect. Another possibility could be the potential investigation by one of the electrostatic imaging methods just under development.

This research was supported by the Icelandic Natural Science Foundation, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, within the Associateship Scheme. Stimulating discussions with Rolf Gerhardts, Daniela Pfannkuche, and Behnam Farid are acknowledged.