HgTe/CdHgTe double quantum well with a spectrum of bilayer graphene and peculiarities of its magnetotransport

Resumo

The quantum Hall effect (QHE) in a HgTe/CdHgTe double quantum well (DQW) with a tunneling-transparent barrier and the energy spectrum resembling the band structure of bilayer graphene has been investigated. An experimental manifestation of a tunnel gap between the states of light carriers seen as a magnetoresistance (MR) peak in the in-plane magnetic field has been discovered. An unusual structure of the QHE has been observed in a sample with hole conductivity: there is a pronounced peak on a plateau with the number i = 2 and the slopes of this anomalous peak correspond to two peaks of the longitudinal MR. On the other hand, a stable 2–1 plateau–plateau transition has been observed in much higher fields with the position of this transition corresponding to a considerably higher hole density than follows from the pattern of the QHE in weak fields. The anomalous peak is interpreted as a reentrant QHE between the 2–1–2 states. The position of the anomalous peak is immune to IR illumination and the tilting angle of the magnetic field, although these factors strongly affect its amplitude. According to comparison with the calculated structure of magnetic levels, the anomalous peak is attributed to crossing of electron-like and hole-like levels in the valence band. The difference between the hole densities found in weak field and from the 2–1 transition in strong fields is attributed to the effects of redistribution of holes between the localized states in sideband maxima of the valence subband and the ones delocalized in the overlapping levels of light holes.