Solid State Communications 260 (2017) 19–22

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Solid State Communications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssc

Communication

Neutral collective excitation in fractional quantum Hall effect at Jain series MARK
⁎
Debashis Das, Moumita Indra, Dwipesh Majumder
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Howrah, WB, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Communicated by A.H. MacDonald
We have studied collective excitation almost all of the filling fraction, in the Jain series of positive flux
attachment states. In this article we have presented excitation spectrum of all positive flux attachment states for
a real two dimensional electron system to get the complete scenario. The fundamental roton energy becomes
zero at the filling fractions associated with four pair of magnetic flux quanta attachment composite fermion,
which suggest that there is a limitation of flux attachment to the electron to form a composite fermion in
fractional quantum Hall effect. The roton energy and energy gap become zero at filling fraction ν = 1/2 , which
shows that the gapless state ν = 1/2 can be naturally obtained as an extrapolation of the collective excitation of
the incompressible gaped states.

1. Introduction CF gives a series of FQHE of real electron system with different

Strongly correlated two dimensional electron system in presence of
perpendicular strong magnetic field shows a remarkable collective
topological effect, known as fractional quantum Hall effect(FQHE)
[1,2], which is the most interesting filed of research in the condensed
matter physics for the last three and half decades. The quasiparticle of
the system is called the composite fermion (CF) [3]. Each electron
attached with even number (2p ) of magnetic quantum vortices and
form a composite fermion, so that the CF particle experiences a
reduced amount of magnetic field
B* = B − 2pρϕ0
where ρ is the two dimensional number density of electron, ϕ0 is the
magnetic flux quantum, B is the applied magnetic field perpendicular
to the sample. CFs form new kind of Landau level (LL) in the reduced
magnetic field, called the Λ level. The filling fraction of the CF LL is
given by ν* = ρhc / e|B*|. The filling fraction of electron(ν) and the filling
fraction of CF is related by the relation
ν*
ν=
2pν* ± 1
where negative sign correspond to the situation B* is in opposite
direction to B. Most of the observed FQHE in the lowest Landau level
(LLL) can be explained as the integral quantum Hall effect of non-
interacting CFs, ν* = n . Rest of the observed FQHE in LLL such as
4/11, 5/13, 7/19, 6/17, etc. are the FQHE of interacting CFs and
known as nested quantum Hall effect [4,5]. A particular IQHE state of
magnetic flux quanta attachment. For instance lowest IQHE of CF (ie.
n=1) gives ν = 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, 1/9 ⋯ etc. At very low filling fraction,
fractional quantum Hall state (FQHS) is destroyed and form Wigner
crystal state [6–8].
The CF picture has been very successful in classifying FQHS into
series of fractions emanating from neighboring even denominator
gapless compressible states [9]. When the Λ level filling become large
(n → ∞) the filling fraction tends to ν = 1/2pie. ν = 1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8,
and so on. The gapless state ν = 1/2 is well studied as the CF Fermi sea.
In the main prominent series of filling fractions ν = n /(2n + 1) give the
half filling at large number of filled Λ levels state.
The negative flux attachment states can be studied as the particle
hole symmetric state of positive flux attachment states [10], moreover
it is very difficult (sometime impossible) to project the wave function
on the LLL due to involvement of many special derivatives of the
wavefunction [11], that is why we have restricted our study within the
positive flux attachment states. We have considered the Zeeman energy
EZ is very high such that the states are fully polarized, so that we can
neglect the spin of electron.
Neutral collective modes in quantum Hall states have been studied
(1) using the Hartree-Fock approximation [12] for the electronic excitons,
density modulation [13] over the ground state in the single-mode
approximation (SMA) [14], exact diagonalization [15] for small
systems, a Hamiltonian description of composite fermions [17], and
excitons of composite fermions [16]. All these studies qualitatively or
semiquantatively describe the presence of “magnetorotons” and “spin
rotons” in the collective modes that have been identified in several

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: debashisphys@gmail.com (D. Das), moumita.indra93@gmail.com (M. Indra), dwipesh@physics.iiests.ac.in (D. Majumder).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssc.2017.05.011
Received 3 April 2017; Accepted 7 May 2017
Available online 08 May 2017
0038-1098/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Das et al. Solid State Communications 260 (2017) 19–22

inelastic light scattering (ILS) experiments [19–21]. In CF picture the

natural collective excitation can be explained as CF-exciton, which is a
strongly bound state of a CF-hole in a filled Λ level and a CF-particle in
the empty Λ-level [18,22]. After the discovery of second mode of
excitations [23], there are many studies of higher energy excitation
with or without spin [20–22,24]. The higher energy mode is obvious in
CF-picture, the excitation of CF across more than one Λ-levels. There is
evidence of existence of collective excitation involving more than one
CF-excitons [25], but it is numerically challenging issue to calculate the
energy spectrum for such kind of excitation. The collective excitation of
FQHE in HLL has been studied using CF theory with the effective
coulomb interaction in the LLL [26].
We have calculated the energy spectra for the six series of filling
fractions for different density of the two dimensional electron system
(2DES) for different quantum well width and we have seen that the
nature of spectra of excitation remain same for a particular filling
fraction, that's why we have presented here only for n = 1011 cm−2
density and 30 nm well width, as most of the experiments on FQHE has
been carried out around this density. In our calculation we have seen
that the fundamental roton energy becomes zero for p=4 irrespective of
number of filled Λ-levels and density, width of the 2DES. Four pair of
flux quanta attachment states (p=4) represents very low filling fraction
(1/9, 2/17, 3/25, 4/33, 5/41), at this filling fraction the state is no
longer FQHS rather WC state.

2. Wave function & calculation procedures

The standard spherical geometry is used in our calculations, which

considers electrons moving on the surface of a sphere, subjected to a
radial magnetic field. The magnetic field can be thought to emanate
from a ‘magnetic monopole’ of strength Q at the centre, which produces
a total magnetic flux of 2Qϕ0 through the surface of the sphere of
radius R = Q l , where l = =c / eB is the magnetic length. This maps
into a system of composite fermions at an effective flux q = QN + 1,
with Q chosen so that the state at q is an integral quantum Hall state at Fig. 1. Low energy fundamental mode of collective excitation energy for different filling
filling ν* = n . In spherical geometry the angular momentum number is fraction in the fully polarized state, with respect to the ground state energy. Unit of
a good quantum number and its value of an electron in the n-th LL is energy is e2 /ϵl , where l is the magnetic length. Wave vector is related to the total angular
n + Q − 1. momentum by kl = L /R . Calculated dispersion of CF excitons for a 30 nm wide GaAs
1
The ground state wave function of FQHS in CF picture can be quantum well with an electron density of 1011 cm−2. a) ν = series, in which only
2p + 1
2 3
expressed as a Slater determinant of projected single particle wave one Λ-level is filled. b) ν = series, in which two Λ-levels are filled. c) ν =
4p + 1 6p + 1
function into the LLL times the Jastrow-factor. The excited state wave series, in which three Λ-levels are filled d) ν =
4
series, in which four Λ-levels are
8p + 1
function of N-electron system at the filling fraction ν = n /(2pn + 1) filled. e) ν =
5
series, in which five Λ-levels are filled. f) ν =
6
series, in which
corresponding to the transition of a CF from a filled Λ level 10p + 1 12p + 1
six Λ-levels are filled. The filling fractions are written in the close vicinity of the
ni (ni ≤ n − 1) to an empty Λ level n f (n f ≥ n ), in the spherical geometry corresponding curves.
is given by [18,22,27].

Ψν(L ) = PLLLJ ∑ |mh > < ni + q , mh; n f + q , mp|L , 0> Orthonormalization procedure to orthogolalize low energy exciton
mh (2) states with a fixed angular momentum. The method of calculation of
energy of such kind of mixed state is called CF-diagonalization [4].
where |mh> is the Slater determinant of n number of filled Λ level with
one CF with Z-component of angular momentum −mh has been shifted
from ni (leaving a hole of angular momentum mh) to n f Λ level with
Z-component of angular momentum mp, <ni + q , mh ; n f + q , mp|L , M >
are the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, L is the total angular momentum,
PLLL is the projection operator onto the lowest Landau level, the
Jastrow factor is given by
N
J= ∏ (uivj − ujvi ) p
i<j (3)

where the spinor variables are u = cos(θ /2) exp( − iϕ /2) and
v = sin(θ /2) exp(iϕ /2) with 0 ≤ θ ≤ π and 0 ≤ ϕ ≤ 2π . Here we have
considered sub-Hilbert space with zero Z-component of angular
Fig. 2. In the right panel we have plotted the energy gap over the ground state, and in
momentum (M=0) without any loss of generality to reduce the
the left panel roton energy verses the filling fraction for six different series. Roton
numerical complicacy. Actual collective excitation is not a single CF- energies and energy gaps monotonically decrease with the filling fraction for each series.
exciton state rather the superposition of all possible excitons. The The low filled Λ-levels state has less energy compared to high filled Λ-levels states though
excitons are not orthogonal, we have used Gram-Schmidt the number of flux attachment is same.

20
D. Das et al.
Fig. 3. Roton energy and the energy gap verses the filling fraction for two most
prominent series ν = n /(2n + 1) and ν = n /(4n + 1) . The roton energy as well as energy
gap sharply fall down to zero as we are approaching to the filling fraction ν = 1/2 and
ν = 1/4 for the two series. The experimental result have been collected from Ref [2].
The excited state energy with respect to the ground state Φν is given
by
<Ψν(L )|H |Ψν(L )> <Φν|H |Φν>
Δν (L ) = −
<Ψν(L )|Ψν(L )> <Φν|Φν>
2
e
The Hamiltonian of the system H = ∑i < j ϵr , ϵ being the dielectric
i, j
constant of the background semiconductor. The multidimensional
integration has been carried out using quantum Monte Carlo method.
3. Results & conclusions
We have calculated the energy spectrum for different filling
fractions at a particular density of electrons (n = 1011 cm−2) for a
square quantum well of width 30 nm, we have included the finite
width extension of the wave function perpendicular to the sample by
the self-consistent local density approximation (LDA) method [28].
CF-diagonalization have been used over 5 to 18 number of CF-
excitons depending upon the number of filled Λ levels to get the
actual excitation energy. We did this calculation for several number of
electrons ranging from 100 to 250, to ensure that the nature of the
spectra in qualitatively and quantitatively does not depend on the
number of electrons, such that the results represent the thermody-
namic behaviour of the system. In Fig. 1 the exciton fundamental
mode of dispersion are quoted as a function of the wave vector kl,
defined as kl = L / R , where R = Q is the radius of the sphere in the
unit of magnetic length. We have plotted energy spectrum for a
particular series in each panel. We have included only 6/13 and 6/25
in the last series, as the spectra of other two fraction 6/37 and 6/49
become fluctuating with the number of particles and the spectra is not
clear. At the higher Λ level filling states, Monte Carlo method fails as
the projected single particle CF-wavefunction diverge. It is observed
that all the energy spectrum for different filling fraction in each series
are identical in nature but the value of energy reduces monotonically
with the flux attachment. The position of the roton minimum shifted
to the lower value of wave vector for each series with the increase of
the flux attachment. Fundamental roton energy at filling fraction
corresponding to the CF states of four pair of flux attachment become
zero, which suggest that there is a limit of flux attachment to the
electron to form a composite fermion in FQHE.
Fig. 2 shows the filling fraction dependence of the lowest roton
energy (fundamental roton) (ΔR) and energy gap (Δg) with respect to
the ground state energy for six different series of filling fraction.
The roton energy of the system becomes zero at the filling fraction
near about ν = 0.1, which is expected as there is a transition between
Solid State Communications 260 (2017) 19–22
fractional quantum Hall liquid to Wigner crystal phase [29] (Fig. 3).
We have plotted the energy gap (the long range separation energy of
a CF particle-hole pair) Δg verses ν, though in the past Jain et al [30]
plot Δg verses 1/(2n + 1), in which n → ∞ gives the half filling, on the
basis of the proposal of Halperin and others 1/2 filled theory [9]. We
have seen that the least square linear fitting of the gap energy gives zero
value at ν = 1/2 filling. The energy gap become zero very near to ν = 1/2
filling though the experimental finding [2] become zero slightly before
half filling. The theoretical finding is very closed to the experimental
results, it may be improved by considering the effect of impurity
present in the system and two roton excitons, which is very much
difficult and challenging problem in numerical calculations.
In summary, the fundamental roton energy become zero at four
pair of flux attachment states, which suggest that there is a limitation of
flux attachment to electron in FQHE. The roton energy as well as the
energy gap become zero at the filling fraction near about ν = 1/2 if we
linearly fit them for the most prominent series ν = n /(2n + 1), which
suggest that the gapless state ν = 1/2 and also 1/4 can be established
from the collective excitation study of gaped states.
Acknowledgement
DD thanks UGC, India (Sr. No. 2121450734 Ref. No. 21/12/2014
(ii) EU-V) for the financial support.
(4)
References
[1] (a) R.B. Laughlin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50 (1983) 1395
(b) H.C. Manoharan, M. Shayegan, S.J. Klepper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 73 (1994) 3270.
[2] R.R. Du, H.L. Stormer, D.C. Tsui, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70
(1993) 2944.
[3] (a) J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) 199
(b) J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 41 (1990) 7653.
[4] S.S. Mandal, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 66 (2002) 155302.
[5] W. Pan, H.L. Stormer, D.C. Tsui, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. Baldwin, K.W. West, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 90 (2003) 016801.
[6] (a) M.R. Peterson, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 68 (2003) 195310
(b) G. Gervais, L.W. Engel, H.L. Stormer, D.C. Tsui, K.W. Baldwin, K.W. West,
L.N. Pfeiffer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 266804.
[7] S.Y. Lee, V.W. Scarola, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 66 (2002) 085336.
[8] W. Pan, H.L. Stormer, D.C. Tsui, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. Baldwin, K.W. West, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 88 (2002) 176802.
[9] B.I. Halperin, P.A. Lee, N. Read, Phys. Rev. B 47 (1993) 7312.
[10] A.C. Balram, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 93 (2016) 235152.
[11] (a) G. Moller, S.H. Simon, Phys. Rev. B 72 (2005) 045344
(b) S.C. Davenport, S.H. Simon, Phys. Rev. B 85 (2012) 245303
(c) A.C. Balram, C. Toke, A. Wojs, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 92 (2015) 075410.
[12] (a) C. Kallin, B.I. Halperin, Phys. Rev. B 30 (1984) 5655
(b) J.P. Longo, C. Kallin, Phys. Rev. B 47 (1993) 4429.
[13] (a) R.P. Feynman, Phys. Rev. 91 (1953) 1291
(b) R.P. Feynman, Phys. Rev. 94 (1954) 262.
[14] (a) S.M. Girvin, A.H. MacDonald, P.M. Platzman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54 (1985) 581
(b) S.M. Girvin, A.H. MacDonald, P.M. Platzman, Phys. Rev. B 33 (1986) 2481
(c) K. Park, J.K. Jain, Solid State Commun. 115 (2000) 353.
[15] P.M. Platzman, S. He, Phys. Rev. B 49 (1994) 13674.
[16] (a) G. Dev, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69 (1992) 2843
(b) R.K. Kamilla, X.G. Wu, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 (1996) 1332
(c) V.W. Scarola, K. Park, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 61 (2000) 13064.
[17] G. Murthy, Phys. Rev. B 60 (1999) 13702.
[18] J.K. Jain, R.K. Kamilla, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 11 (1997) 2621.
[19] (a) A. Pinczuk, B.S. Dennis, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70 (1993)
3983
(b) M. Kang, A. Pinczuk, B.S. Dennis, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86
(2001) 2637
(c) I. Dujovne, A. Pinczuk, M. Kang, B.S. Dennis, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 036803
(d) I. Dujovne, A. Pinczuk, M. Kang, B.S. Dennis, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 95 (2005) 056808.
[20] U. Wurstbauer, D. Majumder, S.S. Mandal, I. Dujovne, T.D. Rhone, B.S. Dennis,
A.F. Rigosi, J.K. Jain, A. Pinczuk, K.W. West, L.N. Pfeiffer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107
(2011) 066804.
[21] T.D. Rhone, D. Majumder, B.S. Dennis, C. Hirjibehedin, I. Dujovne, J.G. Groshaus,
Y. Gallais, J.K. Jain, S.S. Mandal, A. Pinczuk, L. Pfeiffer, K. West, Phys. Rev. Lett.
106 (2011) 096803.
[22] (a) D. Majumder, S.S. Mandal, J.K. Jain, Nat. Phys. 5 (2009) 403
(b) D. Majumder, S.S. Mandal, Phys. Rev. B 90 (2014) 155310.
[23] C.F. Hirjibehedin, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 (2005) 066803.
21
D. Das et al. Solid State Communications 260 (2017) 19–22

[24] S. Golkar, D.X. Nguyen, M.M. Roberts, D.T. Son, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 (2016)
216403.
[25] J.G. Groshaus, I. Dujovne, Y. Gallais, C.F. Hirjibehedin, A. Pinczuk, Y.W. Tan,
H. Stormer, B.S. Dennis, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008)
046804.
[26] (a) A.C. Balram, Y.H. Wu, G.J. Sreejith, A. Wojs, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110
(2013) 186801
(b) C. Toke, M.R. Peterson, G.S. Jeon, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 72 (2005) 125315
(c) V.W. Scarola, K. Park, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 62 (2000) R16259(R).
[27] V.W. Scarola, K. Park, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. B 61 (2000) 13064.
[28] M.W. Ortalano, Song He, S. das Sarma, Phys. Rev. B 55 (1997) 7702.
[29] A.C. Archer, K. Park, J.K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 146804.
[30] K. Park, N. Meskini, J.K. Jain, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 11 (1999) 7283.

22