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Negative permittivity in bubble and stripe phases

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 1124–1129 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The physics of itinerant electrons in condensed matter is by and large governed by repulsive Coulomb forces. However, attractive interactions may emerge and prevail in determining the ground state despite the pervasive Coulomb repulsion. A notable example is electron pairing and superconductivity. The interplay of attractive and repulsive interactions may also instigate spontaneous symmetry lowering and clustering of charges in geometric patterns even without net attraction. Both types of attractive interaction triggered physics—pairing and charge ordering—are at play in two-dimensional electron systems exposed to a quantizing magnetic field. The charge ordering has been concluded indirectly from transport behaviour. Here we report the observation of negative permittivity present solely when bubble and stripe phases form. In conjunction with a theoretical model, the negative permittivity provides evidence for the underlying attractive exchange-correlation energy which sufficiently countervails Coulomb repulsion at small distances to enable and mediate charge clustering.

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Figure 1: Density-modulated phases in the quantum Hall regime: theory and experimental set-up.
Figure 2: Density-modulated phases in the quantum Hall regime: experiment.
Figure 3: On the origin of the negative velocity shift.
Figure 4: Reentrant states in the second Landau level.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the German Israeli Foundation (J.H.S. and V.U.), the Collaborative Research Center 183 (F.v.O.), the Priority Programme 1666 (F.v.O.) and grant RO 2247/8-1 (B.R.) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. We thank A. Wixforth and H. Krenner for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    B. Friess, K. von Klitzing & J. H. Smet

  2. Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

    Y. Peng & F. von Oppen

  3. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universität Leipzig, Vor dem Hospitaltore 1, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

    B. Rosenow

  4. Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Braun Centre for Semiconductor Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    V. Umansky

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  1. B. Friess
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Contributions

B.F. and J.H.S. conceived and designed the experiment. V.U. developed the sample material. B.F. fabricated the samples, carried out the experiments, and performed the data analysis. All authors contributed to the discussion and interpretation of the results. Y.P., B.R. and F.v.O. performed the theoretical modelling and wrote the Supplementary Methods. B.F. and J.H.S. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to J. H. Smet.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Friess, B., Peng, Y., Rosenow, B. et al. Negative permittivity in bubble and stripe phases. Nature Phys 13, 1124–1129 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4213

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