Thesis Title

Lemuel John F. Sese

A thesis proposal presented for the degree of

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Department of Physics
Mapúa University
 Thesis Title

Lemuel John F. Sese

Abstract
A two-dimensional elecron gas (2DEG) under a perpendicular magnetic field is considered. For
a given Landau level, the chemical potential can be approximated to have a linear dependence
on the magnetic field. This approximation is valid except when complete filling is reached
(integer filling factor). The chemical potential oscillation yields a recursion relation for every
Landau level. This gives way to an exact form of the magnetization. The derivations herein
hold at low temperature.

keywords: Two-dimensional electron gas, Chemical potential, Magnetization, Density of

states

1
Contents
1 Objectives and significance 3
1.1 Two-dimensional electron gas in perpendicular magnetic field . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Chemical potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Magnetization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Possible exact form of magnetization 5

2.1 Linear chemical potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Fourier series expansion of chemical potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Timetable 5

2
1 Objectives and significance
Electron systems have their importance in technology mostly in semiconductors. These sys-
tems are well explained by quantum mechanics since electrons are quantum particles which are
describable by a wavefunction Ψ(~r, t). Despite of this, there are some phenomena that are un-
explainable when introducing some constraints. The example of these contraints are reducing
the dimension of a system, and is subjected to low temperature T and high magnetic field B.
Reducing the dimension from 3D to 2D to 1D will change the behavior of the system because
of their different density of states (DOS) [Kittel]. The DOS D(E) for 3D has a form of E 1/2
dependence, for 2D with a constant, and for 1D with a E −1/2 dependence. From these DOS,
we can solve the total internal energy of the system,
Z
U = dE ED(E)f (E) , (1)

where f (E) = 1/(1 + exp[(E − µ)/kB T ]) is the Fermi-Dirac distribution function, µ is the
chemical potential, and kB is the Boltzmann’s constant. Also, other thermodynamic properties
like µ can be obtained its behavior from the DOS by knowing the electron concentration,
Z
N = dE D(E)f (E) . (2)

There are numerous studies [Zawadzki, Villagonzalo, Li, Gammag, Zhu, Wang] in determin-
ing the behavior of different thermodynamic quantities by utilizing (1) and (2). One example
[Gammag] is by determining the behavior of µ using (2) by numerical simulation.

1.1 Two-dimensional electron gas in perpendicular magnetic field

Two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is the confinement of electrons’ motion into two dimen-
sion. This is one of the most interesting systems in condensed matter physics due to its non-bulk
like properties and their possible applications [Ando]. This is realizable in a variety of systems
such as semiconductor heterostructures, graphene and topological insulators [Frieß]. Applying a
perpendicular high magnetic field B, creates more intriguing nonclassical behavior, such as the
integer and fractional quantum Hall effects [Wang]. The studies in these systems were pioneered
by Peierls [Peierls] with his theory on the origin of the oscillatory nature of the de Haas-van
Alphen (dHvA) effect. This effect is the oscillation of the magnetization as B increases. The
theory of Peierls was also confirmed in experiments on two-dimensional systems [Wilde], and
the magnetization oscillation was found to be caused by the DOS [Villagonzalo].
The DOS for an ideal non-interacting 2DEG under a perpendicular magnetic field is given
as a series of Dirac-delta functions [Ando]
eB X
D(E, B) = δ(E − En ) , (3)
h n

where e is the electron charge, h is Planck’s constant and En = (n + 1/2)~ωc is the nth Landau
level with units of energy. Here, ωc = eB/m∗ is the cyclotron frequency for a given effective mass
m∗ . If a system has a very narrow distribution of energy [Villagonzalo], then a delta-shaped
DOS can be used to model actual materials [Wilde].
For real systems, the actual shape of the density of states is determined by making theoretical
fits to the heat capacity data from experimental measurements [Gornik]. many experimental
and theoretical studies on the thermodynamic and magnetic properties of 2DEG, therefore, use
a from of DOS based on a Gaussian function [Ando, Smith, Zawadzki, Zawadzki(Surf. Sci.)]
such as
eB X 1 1/2 1 (E − En )2
   
D(E, B) = exp − , (4)
h n 2π Γ 2Γ 2

3
 Figure 1: The magnetic field dependence of the chemical potential.

where Γ is the broadening parameter in units of energy. Here, Γ describes different types of
interaction such as electron-electron and electron-impurity scattering as describe in Ref. [Ando,
Yang]. The broadening parameter determines the width of distribution at the peaks of energies
En .

1.2 Chemical potential

From the simulation of Ref. [Gammag], the chemical potential µ can be obtained via a root-
finding method of (2). This condition is not a problem since experiments on 2DEG usually
keep N constant. The result yields a sawtooth oscillation of µ with respect to B and is periodic
with respect to the filling factor. The filling factor ν is the number of electrons per Landau
level degeneracy which is given as
hN
ν= . (5)
eB
We can define ν = ν ∗ /2, such that ν ∗ with an even integer value corresponds to full-filling,
and ν ∗ with an odd integer value to half-filling. From Figure 1, if ν = 1.5, the n = 0 level is
fully filled and the n = 1 is half-filled. When 1 < ν < 2, the chemical potential varies linearly
with B. Also, it was found that for half-filled states, µ is independent of B and temperature T
[Gammag, Villagonzalo]. Thus we define the chemical potential at half-filled states to have a
constant value µhf .
The magnetic field dependence of µ is important for the derivation of the exact form of the
magnetization M .

1.3 Magnetization
Considering the 2DEG as a grand canonical ensemble, its free energy [Greiner]
Z +∞   
µ(B) − E
F = µ(B)N − kB T D(E, B) ln 1 + exp dE , (6)
0 kB T
where kB is the Boltzmann constant. If we substitute the ideal DOS (3) to (6), leads to
eB X  
µ(B) − En (B)

F = µ(B)N − · kB T ln 1 + exp . (7)
h n
kB T

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As can be seen from (7), the quantization of energy simplifies the calculation for the free energy.
From Maxwell’s relations, M can be obtained from the free energy F,

∂F 
M (B, T ) = − . (8)
∂B N =constant

Applying (8) to (7),the derivative will act on the continuous region of µ and the magnetization
takes the form
∂µ eX
M (B, T ) = −N + (kB T β(B, n) + Bσ(B, n)) , (9)
∂B h n
where   
µ(B) − En (B)
β(B, n) = ln 1 + exp (10)
kB T
and 
  
∂µ 1 e~
σ(B, n) = fn (B) − n+ . (11)
∂B 2 m∗
Here, fn in (11) is the Fermi-Dirac distribution function,
1
fn (B) = h i . (12)
En (B)−µ(B,n)
exp kB T +1

2 Possible exact form of magnetization

2.1 Linear chemical potential
2.2 Fourier series expansion of chemical potential

3 Timetable