Interaction induced edge channel equilibration

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Dr. Anders Mathias Lunde, ICMM CSIC, Madrid, Spain

When

2010/06/18
14:00

Place

Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 4 (nearby the Facultad de Quimica), Donostia

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Two decades ago, edge states in integer quantum hall systems were demonstrated to be a physical reality by creating a non-equilibrium population through selective injection and detection of carriers in different states along the same edge. Now in a series of novel experiments the group of F. Pierre has investigated the non-equilibrium distribution function in an edge state as it evolves along a channel away from a quantum point contact at which it is initially created. In the work presented here, we discuss the electronic distribution functions of two Coulomb coupled chiral edge states. They form a quasi-1D system with broken translation invariance and the distribution function is found using the equation of motion approach. We find that relaxation and thereby energy exchange between the two edge states is determined by the shot noise of the edge states generated at a quantum point contact. In close vicinity to the quantum point contact, we derive analytic expressions for the distribution functions. We further give an iterative procedure with which we can compute numerically the distribution functions arbitrarily far away from the quantum point contact. Our results are compared with the recent experiments by F. Pierre et al. Reference: A. M. Lunde, S. E. Nigg, M. Buttiker, Phys. Rev. B 81, 041311(R) (2010).