Electron tunneling spectroscopy of a quantum antidot in the quantum Hall regime

Abstract

Quantum antidot, a small potential hill introduced into a two-dimensional electron system, presents an attractive tool to study quantum mechanics of interacting electrons.Here, we report experiments on electron resonant tunneling via a quantum antidot on the integer i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 quantum Hall plateaus. Several new features are reported. First, as a function of magnetic field, we observe up to six quasiperiodic resonant tunneling peaks within the fundamental flux period: when flux h/e is added to the area of the antidot there are i peaks on the i-th integer plateau, when i spin-polarized Landau levels are occupied. Corresponding back gate voltage data show one peak per added charge e on all integer plateaus. Second, we observe tunneling dips in four-terminal resistance ("forward scattering") on the even i = 2, 4, and 6 plateaus, when population of both spins is nearly equal. Also, for the first time, we report an internal structure within the h/e period: on the i = 3 spin-split plateau, two of the three resonant tunneling peaks are higher and/or closer than the third. Puzzlingly, in this regime, when back gate voltage is swept, the tunneling peaks are grouped in pairs. These results are attributed to the dominance of the electron-electron Coulomb interaction, effectively mixing Landau level occupation, and to the self-consistent electrostatics of the antidot.