The inductive coupling with On-Chip coils / O acoplamento indutivo com bobinas On-Chip

AUTOR(ES)

Jaqueline dos Santos Soares

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The quantum Hall effect (QHE) remains the target of an immense research effort twenty six years after its discovery. In fact this phenomenon has been a source of fundamental questions. Among the open problems in the field is the spatial distribution of the electric current in the quantum Hall effect. This question has been in debate since its discovery. Some experimental and theoretical results indicate the Hall current is distributed uniformly across the width of a Hall bar. Contradictorily, other results suggest the current flows mostly in a narrow region along the devices edges. Prominent works by Yahel et al. [PRL 76, 2149 (1996) and PRL 81, 5201 (1998)] shed new lights on the subject by using an experimental technique that came to known as inductive coupling. This method is based on the measurement of the nanovoltage signal induced by an alternating Hall current in a compact coil, carefully positioned above one edge of a Hall bar. It is perhaps the least invasive method available to study the current distribution in the QHE. It remained nonetheless a challenging experiment, as regards the positioning and making of the coil and the measurement of the minute induced voltage. We showed with calculations that it is possible to greatly simplify the aforementioned technique and make it more sensitive and useful by fabricating the coil on the chip containing the Hall bar. The concept was tested experimentally replacing the semiconductor Hall bar with a metal strip whose current distribution is known to be uniform from the electrodynamics. The voltage induced by the current in the metal strip in a nearby coil fits was measured. It fits in precisely, in magnitude and phase, with the values calculated. As our most important contribution, we found out that the presence of a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG), located 200 nm underneath the coil, increases the induced signal by thirty times. The magnitude and phase of the signal indicate it comes mostly from the current induced in the 2DEG by the alternating Hall current. This amplification effect renders a stronger signal with a sample containing a milimetric size Hall bar and a coil with ten turns, conveniently fabricated by simple optical lithography, than the signal measured by Yahel, using a ten times larger Hall bar and a handcrafted coil with 3,000 turns. We speculate that the effect of the 2DEG shall allow the use of our technique to map the current distribution in the QHE and also to study nanoscopic magnetic systems.

ASSUNTO(S)

quantum hall effect distribuição de corrente efeito hall quântico acoplamento indutivo electric current distribution fisica da materia condensada inductive coupling

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