Confinement-deconfinement transition due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum Hall bilayers

D. I. Pikulin (), P. G. Silvestrov and T. Hyart
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D. I. Pikulin: University of British Columbia
P. G. Silvestrov: Institute for Mathematical Physics, TU Braunschweig
T. Hyart: Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Band-inverted electron-hole bilayers support quantum spin Hall insulator and exciton condensate phases. Interest in quantum spin Hall effect in these systems has recently put them in the spotlight. We investigate such a bilayer in an external magnetic field. We show that the interlayer correlations lead to formation of a helical quantum Hall exciton condensate state. Existence of the counterpropagating edge modes in this system results in formation of a ground state spin-texture not supporting gapless single-particle excitations. The charged edge excitations in a sufficiently narrow Hall bar are confined: a charge on one of the edges always gives rise to an opposite charge on the other edge. Magnetic field and gate voltages allow the control of a confinement-deconfinement transition of charged edge excitations, which can be probed with nonlocal conductance. Confinement-deconfinement transitions are of great interest, not least because of their possible significance in shedding light on the confinement problem of quarks.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10462

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