Solid State Communications, Vol. 84, No. 4, pp. 397-400, 1992. 0038-1098/92$5.00+.

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Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd

THE PLATEAU WIDTH OF THE INTEGRAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT

AS FUNCTION OF TEMPERATURE

Niels Lolk
H.C. Orsted Institutet, University of Copenhagen
DX-2100 Copenhagen 0, Denmark

(Received 7 August 1992 by I. Balslev)

18 August 1992)
(Accepted

In an attempt to understand the integral quantum Hall ef-

fect, it is important to realise that the chemical potential
p. the Landau level splitting ho, as well as kBT are all of
the same order of magnitude.
The present paper is based on the assumption of the
existence of an electron reservoir which keeps the chemical
potential of the extended states independent of the magnetic
field. This assumption leads to a linear relationship be-
tween quantum Hall plateau width and the temperature. The
theory uses no fitting parameters and agrees with experi-
ments.

The simple classical expression for the

Hall resistance R,,: R = 2%B $[exp[&J(i + +)$B - p)] + I]-'

(3)

(1) surprisingly showed that the experimen-

predicts proportionality between RH and
the applied magnetic field B (if the
two-dimensional density of electrons n
is independent of magnetic field).
The peculiarity about the quantized
Hall effect, however, is that RH in
strcng magnetic fields, at low tempera-
tures, oscillates around the straight
line. When R,(B,T) is plotted as function
of B, wide plateaus are formed where RH
is nearly independent of B. In the sim-
ple integral case (IQHE) the plateau
values of R,,are given by
R,=h , v= 1,2, . . .
e2v
(2)
with very high accuracy.
A straightforward explanation of the
IQHE can be given by assuming that (1)
is still valid but n is not constant.
The density of particles n will vary
rapidly whenever a Landau level passes
through the Fermi-surface. This idea was
used in the early efforts to achieve a
theoretical understanding of the quantum
Hall effect [l]. Recently, the idea was
taken up again [2]. Numerical evaluation
of the following expression (3) (ne-
glecting spin splitting but not spin de-
generacy)
tal curves are reproduced very well by
combining (1) and (3). The only assump-
tion is that the chemical potential p,
rather than n, is constant. This is tan-
tamount to saying that equation (3) does
not determine p(B,T), but rather n(B,T).
The simplest explanation of an (ap-
proximately) constant chemical potential
would be that it is possible for the 2
DEG to exchange electrons with the bulk,
the three-dimensional surroundings. It
can be shown that in the bulk the oscil-
lations in p(B) are much smaller [3] be-
cause of the third weakly quantized di-
mension.
Thermodynamical equilibrium with the
surroundings by the very low tempera-
tures at which the QHE is observed, how-
ever, seems to be excluded by other ex-
perimental facts like persistent photo-
conductivity. Shining light on the sam-
ple causes an enhanced conductivity be-
cause electrons are excited from the
bulk to the two-dimensional channel. At
low temperatures, contrary to room tem-
perature, this enhanced conductivity
persists for hours after turning off the
light. This seems to indicate that at
low temperatures thermodynamical equi-
librium is established only very slowly.
Another possibility of a particle
reservoir is localized states within the
2DEG which are not current-carrying, but
act as a background in the density of

397
398 INTEGRAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT Vol. 84, No. 4

states. Thereby they are able to keep Landau-level broadening (we discuss the
the chemical potential at an (almost) validity of this assumption below). In
fixed value. the figure are also marked the two Lan-
In the present paper we do not deter- dau level energies E,, E,,,.Here E, is the
mine what acts as a reservoir for the Landau level energy of the v'th Landau
2DEG. Below we just make the assumption level in the magnetic field B*. Similar-
that the extended current-carrying ly, E,+,designates the Landau level ener-
states can exchange electrons with a gy of the v+l'th Landau level in the
reservoir with constant chemical magnetic field B,. It then follows that
potential [2].

1ehg ++mgB2
It is essential to notice that

P = ho, = k,T
E

=

(1-l2 2me2
V
Ev.1= +1 ehg -
z 2 +BB,
( i m

which makes it natural to examine wheth-

er expression (3) with the Fermi func- Here we have introduced the g-factor
tion is able to explain the temperature of the electron by denoting the spin
dependence of the plateau width. splitting by gpoB.
The plateau width is below defined as In case 1 the v+l'th Landau level is
the interval of magnetic field AB,(T) by going to be partially filled, and the
which the Hall resistance R,,at most de- density of particles in this level is
viates a given fraction A from the ideal given by (3):
value (2).
In figure 1 the 2DEG is sketched at
critical values B,, B? of the magnetic
field in the case of even filling factor
;8,[exP[&( (; +$)$Bl - fsilJ31-ll))
+1r
V.
To the left is sketched the Fermi
function together with the interval of
=-
p1 -eb 1+ 1
energy n in which this function is es- (4)
sentially different from both zero and
one. In the middle and to the right we
show the density of states for the 2DEG with
at the two magnetic fields B,, B,, as-
suming for simplicity that there is no

E Disregarding the density of particles

in higher Landau levels, it follows from
(1) and (4):

Bl
RH q

?Bv
I- h1
QP
= h -P

f-

It is now easy to calculate the rela-

tive deviation A between R,,(T)and the i-
deal value (2):

A=L__._L_
V eb + 1

or:

-L l-t------I
g-J (; + y$Bl - +&5 - P)
E-V =ln(& - lj
.p+,
(5)
Fig. 1: See text. Because the Fermi function is symmet-
Vol. 84, No. 4 INTEGRAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT 399

ric about p, it is possible in the same
way to show that a similar expression
holds for B,:
ity is illustrated by [4] where A in the
experiment is chosen to be 2 %, v = 3, m
= 0,066 m.,(ALGaAs), g = 0,99 and, final-
1YI n = 4 x 10" cme2.
Knowing the density of particles n
without magnetic field, it is possible
to calculate the chemical potential ~1
(two-dimensional case):

(6) n = +B=O) = 2x10-= J

In the case of even filling factor v

it now follows from (5) and (6): 'Then all of the quantities in the the-
oretical expression (8) for AB,(T) are
ABv,.ven(T)
= B, - B, known, and we get:

*B,(T)= 0,l - 0,2 T (Tesla)

(7)
A comparison with experiment (fig. 2)
shows that there is a close correspon-
, p = l-+5 , y = ln(& - 1) dence as to what concerns the slope a of
the straight line:

A similar calculation for odd filling a exp. - 0,25

factor provides the following result: a fheor. - 0.2

*B,,&_i --$&II - &v2 The plateau width at zero temperature

P -
The above expressions (7), (8) for
the plateau width predict a linear de-
pendence of temperature, and the valid-
lo1
P2 AB,(T=o), however, is experimentally a-
round 1 Tesla and in theory only 0,l.
One explanation could be that AB,,,,(T=O)
according to theory is proportional to
the g-factor of the electron, and this
quantity may be strongly dependent on
the magnetic field, substantially great-
er than 0,99 (141) at magnetic fields
giving the filling factor v=3. Another
possibility is that the chemical
potential p actually depends also on the
magnetic field. However, it can be shown
that if p and g are independent of tem-
perature, the temperature dependence of
the plateau width will be the same. It
will still be linear with the same
slope. Only AB,(T=O) is changed.
It is also noteworthy that we have
assumed the Landau levels to contribute
with 6- functions to the density of
states g(E) which may also be regarded
as very unrealistic. But if the broad-
ening is independent of temperature [S],
the effect will just be to reduce the
plateau width. It will not change the
temperature dependence: the dependence
will still be linear, and the slope will
be the same, only AB,(T=O) is reduced.

Conclusion

In the work by Chudinov et al. [41

I I
0 1 2 3
'I-
WI
Fig. 2: Experimental values of the plat-
eau width as function of temperature for
v = 3 and A = 2 %. The straight line is
based on fitting parameters [4].
I the temperature dependence of the plat-
eau widths was measured, and a linear
dependence was found. It was explained
by assuming a broadening of the Landau
levels. In order to obtain agreement
with experiments, it was necessary to
further assume that broadening depends
linearily on temperature. In this work
we have shown that agreement with exper-
400 INTEGRAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT
iment can be obtained without fitting
parameters if we assume that the chemi-
cal potential for the current-carrying
(extended) states is independent of the
magnetic field.
REFERENCES
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Rev. -I
B24 2274 (1981)
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[2] R. L. Ingraham and J. M. Wilkes,
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[3] v. I. Nizhankovskii, V. G. Mokerov,
B. K. Medvedev, and Yu. V. Shaldin, Sov.
Phys. JETP Q, 4 (1986)
[4] S. M. Chudinov, P. Yu. Rodichev, G.
Mancini, S. Stizza, and I. Davoli, Solid
State Comm. 12, 961 (1991)
[5] R. B. Dingle, Proc. Roy. Sot. (Lon-
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