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PHYSICAL REVIEW B 69, 161302共R兲 共2004兲

Self-sustaining resistance oscillations: Electron-nuclear spin coupling

in mesoscopic quantum Hall devices
G. Yusa,1,* K. Hashimoto,2 K. Muraki,1 T. Saku,3 and Y. Hirayama1,2
1
NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, 243-0198, Japan
2
SORST Program, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Honmachi, Kawaguchi, Saitama 331-0012, Japan
3
NTT Advanced Technology, 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, 243-0198, Japan
共Received 15 January 2004; published 9 April 2004兲
We study electron-nuclear spin coupled systems implemented in mesoscopic fractional quantum Hall de-
vices. We find that longitudinal resistance in such systems, oscillates with a period of several hundreds of
seconds driven by a constant voltage instead of a constant current. The anomalous behavior suggests that an
average nuclear spin polarization self-sustainingly oscillates between randomized and polarized states, which
reveal the nonlinear nature of the mesoscopic electron-nuclear spin coupled systems.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.69.161302 PACS number共s兲: 73.23.⫺b, 72.25.Dc, 05.45.⫺a, 76.60.⫺k

Nuclear spin is considered to have many applications for were fabricated from GaAs wafers, which contains a 20 nm
quantum information processing and computation.1–3 In ef- Al0.32Ga0.68As/GaAs/Al0.32Ga0.68As quantum well on a Si
forts to control spin flip processes, hyperfine interactions4 –7 doped n ⫹ GaAs substrate that functions as a back gate elec-
between conduction electrons and nuclei of their host mate- trode. The point contact structures are defined by the width,
rials have recently attracted much interest, and electron-spin W⫽5 ␮ m, and the length, L⫽1 ␮ m, as shown in inset to
flips between two spin-resolved states have been investigated Fig. 1共a兲. The gap between two composite fermion edge
in several systems. They include spin-polarized and channels at ␯ ⫽2/3 was locally narrowed in a point contact
-unpolarized states of domain structures8 –12 in Ising quantum region, but was sufficiently wide for all edge channels to
Hall 共QH兲 ferromagnets, and spin-resolved edge channels in
the QH regime.7,13,14 Transport coefficients of such systems
shows hysteresis or monotonic development on a large time
scale,7–14 reflecting the slow nature of spin-lattice relaxation
of nuclei.
In the fractional quantum Hall 共FQH兲 regime, appropriate
tuning of perpendicular magnetic field, B, and the Landau
level filling factor, ␯ , yields two energetically degenerate
states having different spin configurations; polarized or un-
polarized, for example at ␯ ⫽2/3. These states can be made
degenerate because the Zeeman energy of electron spins can
compensate for the Coulomb energy difference between elec-
trons with different spin configurations. Then, two local in-
compressible domain structures having different spin con-
figurations can coexist being separated by domain
boundaries. When a current is allowed to flow through such
a system, electron-nuclear spin coupling manifests itself in
the transport. Due to the degeneracy, any subtle change in the
local energy distribution can cause dramatic spin phase tran-
sitions and can yield novel phenomena involving nuclear
spins.
We studied longitudinal resistance R xx of mesoscopic
scale electron-nuclear spin coupled systems in FQH ferro-
magnets at ␯ ⫽2/3 and observed that R xx oscillated with a
period of several hundreds of seconds for more than 10 h. In FIG. 1. 共a兲 Time dependence of the longitudinal resistance, R xx ,
this paper, we suggest that the average of spin angular mo- of a point contact device at the spin-transition point of ␯ ⫽2/3 at
mentum of nuclei, 具 Iz 典 , parallel to B, oscillates between ran- B⫽7.5 T and at temperature, T⫽0.3 K. I sd is 3.57 nA, which os-
domized ( 具 Iz 典 ⫽0) and polarized states ( 具 Iz 典 ⬎0). Such self- cillates with amplitude of 0.02 nA. 共Inset兲 Schematic illustration of
sustaining oscillations reveal nonlinear nature of electron- our device. 共b兲 Details of the resistance oscillations at t between 9
nuclear spin coupled systems implemented in mesoscopic and 9.5 h. 共c兲 Time dependence of R xx with several values of I sd at
FQH devices. B⫽6.9 T and T⫽200 mK. 共Inset兲 Schematic illustration of the spa-
In order to examine the local coupling between electrons tial dependence of nuclear spin polarization and its dependence on
and nuclear spin, we studied point contact structures. They I sd .

0163-1829/2004/69共16兲/161302共4兲/$22.50 69 161302-1 ©2004 The American Physical Society


YUSA, HASHIMOTO, MURAKI, SAKU, AND HIRAYAMA
penetrate the point contact region, and the electron density in
the point contact region is the same as that in the bulk of
two-dimensional 共2D兲 electron gas.17 We measured the time
dependence of the four-terminal R xx between terminal 1-2 or
4-5 of the point contacts by standard lock-in techniques with
the source-drain current, I sd , using an electrical circuit dis-
played in the inset to Fig. 4. We refer to constant-current or
-voltage mode18 as the circuit with or without a 50 M⍀ se-
ries resistance. The measurement was done in constant-
voltage mode unless specified. Before each time-dependent
measurement, a randomization procedure for nuclear spin
polarization was performed by scanning ␯ from ⬃0.8 to ⬃1
in 120 s exploiting the fast relaxation of nuclear spins by
Skyrmions10,12,15 that exist around these filling factors. The
time origin, t⫽0, is defined as the time at which ␯ is re-set
after the randomization procedure for nuclear spin polariza-
tion.
Figure 1 shows the time dependence of R xx around the
transition point at ␯ ⫽2/3. It can be clearly seen that R xx
oscillated as a function of time for more than 10 h 关Fig.
1共a兲兴. We observed nonlinearity in the system: the behavior
of R xx strongly depend on I sd 关Fig. 1共c兲兴. For I sd of 6 nA,
R xx increases monotonically and saturates at t⬃300 s, which
is similar to the behavior previously reported in macroscopi-
cally large Hall bar samples.8 –11 By reducing I sd from 6 nA,
however, the behavior of R xx starts to deviate from such a
simple monotonic increase, and R xx starts to oscillate. By
reducing I sd further to ⬃0.5 nA, the oscillations weaken and
no longer persist. The two distinct classes of the resistance
behavior, oscillations or enhancement, can be explained by
the difference in the local current density in the point con-
tact, i sd ⫽I sd /W, and that in the wide probe regions. As pre-
viously reported, the increase of the resistance in the Hall
bars can be considered as the increase of 具 Iz 典 , 8 –11 and only
sufficiently high I sd can polarize nuclear spins. The value of
i sd in the point contact is one order of magnitude larger than
that in the probe. Therefore, for the polarization of nuclear
spins, low I sd is sufficient in the point contact, while high I sd
is required in the probe. For high I sd , nuclear spins both in
the point contact and probe regions are polarized, and the
resistance behavior is seemingly dominated by the nuclear
spin polarization in the wide probe regions 关Fig. 1共c兲 inset兴.
Therefore, by choosing appropriate current, we can examine
the resistance dominated by the property of the point contact
region.
Oscillations take place only in a limited region of ␯ ; R xx
oscillates only for the values of ␯ between 0.672 and 0.687
共Fig. 2兲. As denoted by two pairs of arrows in Fig. 2共c兲, this
region corresponds to the spin-phase-transition point at ␯ of
2/3 between the spin-polarized and -unpolarized states, as
confirmed by obtaining the dependence of R xx on B and
␯ . 11,12 In contrast, R xx stays constant outside the region. The
condition for the perpetual oscillations is further limited to
within ⫾1% in ␯ . Slightly away from this region R xx oscil-
lations are damped and have finite lifetime 共compare R xx at
␯ 1 , ␯ 2 , and ␯ 3 ). Another interesting feature is that the
phases of the oscillations are remarkably coherent for differ-
ent ␯ 关Fig. 2共b兲兴. Without a randomization procedure for
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PHYSICAL REVIEW B 69, 161302共R兲 共2004兲
FIG. 2. Time dependence of R xx of the point contact measured
as a function of ␯ at B⫽7.5 T and T⫽200 mK. The measurement
consists of sequences of a randomization procedure for nuclear spin
polarization (⫺120⬍t⬍0 s), re-setting of ␯ (t⫽0), and measure-
ment of R xx as a function of time (t⬎0). 共a兲 Contour plot of R xx as
functions of t and ␯ . 共b兲 Detail of the oscillations for selected val-
ues of ␯ between 0.672 and 0.687. 共c兲 ␯ dependence of R xx at t
⫽0, 300 and 400 s. We confirmed that the transition point between
the spin-polarized and -unpolarized states was in the vicinity of ␯
⬃0.69 at this magnetic field by obtaining the dependence of R xx on
B and ␯ 共Refs. 11 and 12兲.
nuclear spin polarization, the oscillations start from the tail
of the previous scan. Note here that R xx at t 2 , at which R xx is
at a local minimum agrees with R xx at 0 s 关Fig. 2共c兲兴. This
indicates that the local minima of the R xx oscillations corre-
spond to 具 Iz 典 ⫽0; nuclear spin polarization is randomized.
To investigate the mechanism of the anomalous resistance
oscillations, we performed time-dependent measurements in
the presence of continuous-wave radio frequency radiation
共rf兲 共Fig. 3兲. The rf can resonate with the Larmor frequency
of nuclear spins and nuclear magnetic resonances 共NMRs兲
can be detected resistively.9,10,12 The 50.866 MHz radiation,
which corresponds to the resonant frequency of 75As nuclei
at B⫽7 T, 16 reduces the amplitude and the frequency of the
resistance oscillations 关Fig. 3共b兲兴. The frequency dependence
of R xx in Fig. 3共c兲 clearly exhibits the typical NMR spec-
trum. The resistance oscillations, therefore, originate from
electron-nuclear spin coupling. Similar resonant changes are
also detected at 96.73 MHz at B⫽7.4 T, which corresponds
to NMR of 71Ga nuclei.16
An intriguing result is that the behavior of R xx depends on
the measurement circuit. Figure 4 shows the time depen-
dence of R xx in a continuous time sequence, which was mea-
sured in the constant-current mode 共the hatched regions兲 or
in the constant-voltage mode 共the unhatched regions兲. The
two modes are switched by selecting terminals A or B, as
schematically depicted in the inset to Fig. 4. The voltage was
simultaneously changed such that I sd was continuously
⬃2.2 nA for both modes. R xx oscillates only in the constant-
voltage mode; in the constant-current mode, it increases
monotonically and saturates, which means that randomized
nuclear spins at the local minima are gradually polarized8 –11

SELF-SUSTAINING RESISTANCE OSCILLATIONS: . . .
FIG. 3. Time dependence of R xx as a function of frequency, f rf ,
of the rf radiation at B⫽7 T and T⫽200 mK. 共a兲 A contour plot of
R xx as functions of t and f rf . A resonant change of the oscillations
due to NMR of 75As nuclei is observed at f rf⫽50.866 MHz. 共b兲
Time dependence of R xx in the presence of rf radiation off reso-
nance with f rf⫽50.84 and 50.89 MHz, and at resonance with f rf
⫽50.866 MHz. 共c兲 f rf dependence of R xx at t⫽150 s.
共see for example R xx start at t b ). Therefore, the nuclear spins
are seemingly polarized at the local maxima, while they are
randomized at the local minima, and the nuclear spin polar-
ization oscillates between the spin-randomized and
-polarized states. Another important point is that I sd itself
slightly oscillates in the constant-voltage mode. The phase of
the oscillations of I sd and R xx are opposite, because, when
the resistance decreases, the current increases due to the
fixed voltage. One of the most interesting results is that the
resistance and the current self-sustainingly oscillate as a
function of time in spite of the constantly fixed voltage
source. The oscillations are not due to the alternating voltage
FIG. 4. Time dependence of R xx and I sd measured with A:
constant-voltage 共the unhatched regions兲 or B: constant-current 共the
hatched regions兲 modes in a continuous time sequence at B
⫽7.4 T and T⫽200 mK. No spin randomization procedure was
performed for the switching. 共Inset兲 A schematic illustration of the
measurement circuit. A 50 M⍀ resistance was inserted to the circuit
in series for the constant-current mode.
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at 13 Hz used for the lock-in measurement, because we con-
firmed that R xx oscillated also in dc measurements.
The oscillations are robust and observed only in point
contact samples: 共i兲 The oscillations, including phase infor-
mation, are reproducible. 共ii兲 The oscillations are observed in
several devices fabricated from several wafers. 共iii兲 We mea-
sured 50-␮ m-wide Hall bar samples and confirmed that the
resistance only increased monotonically and saturated even
in the constant-voltage mode. These results also confirm that
such oscillations are not experimental artifacts, but instead
reflect the intrinsic nature of mesoscopic electron-nuclear
spin coupled systems.
The mechanism of the oscillations is puzzling. According
to the model in previous studies on wide Hall bars,8 –11
electron-spin flips across polarized and unpolarized domains
flop nuclear spins at a domain boundary when large current
is supplied. This process feeds back to electrons through hy-
perfine fields. In this model, an increase of the resistance is
attributed to an increase of the backscattering probability.19
The important point here is that the backscattering depends
on the current through the hyperfine interaction, which yields
the nonlinearity in the system. Especially in our structure, a
domain boundary is considered to bridge the two edge chan-
nels in the narrowest part of the point-contact region, and
only a few domains are expected to be involved. When the
current flows through the point contact, the resistance in-
creases due to the nuclear spin polarization, which decreases
the current in the constant-voltage mode. As a result, the rate
of the nuclear spin polarization decreases and nuclear spins
relax toward a thermal equilibrium state is in the order of
hundreds of seconds and so the resistance also tends to de-
crease. However, once the resistance decreases the current
increases in the constant-voltage mode and the resistance
starts to increase again. The most puzzling part is the reason
why these cycles are perpetually repeated. Such self-
sustaining oscillations are typically seen in nonlinear
systems.20 However, an equation, which describes the non-
linear system, varies in each case, and it requires further
investigations for modeling our system. In fact, the pattern of
the oscillations in Fig. 1共b兲 can be described as sinusoidal,
but the resistance oscillations sometimes show more compli-
cated periodic patterns, depending on I sd , ␯ , B, and T. This
is typical nature of nonlinear systems: slight modification of
parameters changes periodic patterns, and sometimes extin-
guishes the periodicity itself. As a microscopic interpretation,
slight modification of the topological arrangement of do-
mains in the point contact region by means of I sd , ␯ , B, and
T changes the nuclear spin polarization. Even if the electron-
nuclear spin coupling occurs in more than one domain
boundary, each process is not independent and is correlated
each other, because the resistance never shows beating pat-
terns originating from integration of several oscillations with
different frequencies. Former studies in macroscopic Hall
bars have not revealed the existence of such self-sustaining
and perpetual oscillations, presumably because the local non-
linearity is averaged out.
In conclusion, we studied electron-nuclear spin coupled
systems in mesoscopic FQH devices and we found that the
resistance oscillated perpetually with a period of several hun-

YUSA, HASHIMOTO, MURAKI, SAKU, AND HIRAYAMA
dreds of seconds. This suggests that the nuclear spin polar-
ization oscillates between randomized and polarized states.
Such self-sustaining resistance oscillations reveal nonlinear
nature of electron-nuclear spin coupled systems implemented
in mesoscopic FQH devices.
Note added in proof. Undamped oscillations of the optical
polarization of bulk AlGaAs,21 and oscillatory current in a
double quantum dot in the spin blockade regime22 have been
*Email address: yusa@nttbrl.jp
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reported in relation to nuclear spin dynamics. It is, however,
an open question as to whether these oscillatory phenomena
and the resistance oscillations of our study involve the same
underlying physics.
The authors are grateful to T. Inoshita, Y. Tokura, K.
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Although R xx minima at ␯ ⫽2/3 was obscured for devices with W
less than 1.5 ␮ m, we observed R xx minima and the spin-phase
transition between the spin-polarized and -unpolarized states at
␯ ⫽2/3 for devices with W down to 2 ␮ m. Therefore, one can
safely conclude that ␯ in the point contact region and that in the
bulk 2D electron gas are the same for the device used here.
18
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