Magnetocapacitance Investigation of Quantum Hall Effect and Edge States

Abstract

The quantum Hall effect for the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostrcture is investigated by an ac capacitance measurement between the two-dimensional electron system (2DES) and the gate on GaAs/AlGaAs. The capacitance minima at the quantum Hall plateaus are mainly determined not by the 2DES area under the gate but by the edge length of 2DES. There exists the high conductive region due to the edge states along the 2DES boundary, when the bulk conductivity σxx is small enough at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. From the temperature and frequency dependence of the capacitance minima, it is found that the measured capacitance consists of the contribution from the edge states and that of the bulk state, which is treated as a distributed circuit of a resistive plate with the conductivity σxx. The evaluated width of edge states from the capacitance is much larger than the magnetic length and the cyclotron radius expected from the one-electron picture. This wide width of edge states can be explained by the compressible-incompressible strip model, in which the screening effect is taken into account. Further the bulk conductivity of less than 10-12 S (S=1/Ω) is measured by the capacitance of the Corbino geometry sample, where the edge states are absent and the capacitance is determined by only σxx in this geometry. The localization of the bulk state is investigated by the obtained σxx.