Coherence and disorder in bilayer quantum hall systems

H. A. Fertig, Ganpathy Murthy

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The quantum Hall bilayer at total filling factor v=1 displays a number of properties akin to superfluidity, most clearly apparent in its very low dissipation in tunneling and counterflow transport. Theoretical descriptions in terms of quantum Hall ferromagnetism or thin-film superfluidity can be developed to explain these phenomena. In either case, merons can be identified as important low energy excitations. We demonstrate that a model in which puddles of merons induced by disorder, separated by narrow regions of interlayer coherencea coherence networkcan naturally explain many of the imperfect superfluid finite temperature properties that are observed in these systems. The periodic realization of this model shows that there can be low energy excitations beyond the superfluid mode. These are associated with transitions between states of different meron number in the puddles, where we argue that merons should be unbound at any temperature, and which can have important implications for the effect of quantum fluctuations on the system.

Original languageEnglish
Article number349362
JournalAdvances in Condensed Matter Physics
Volume2011
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Funding

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China0704033, 0703992

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Condensed Matter Physics

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