Unconventional conductance plateau transitions in quantum Hall wires with spatially correlated disorder

Abstract

Quantum transport properties in quantum Hall wires in the presence of spatially correlated random potential are investigated numerically. It is found that the potential correlation reduces the localization length associated with the edge state, in contrast to the naive expectation that the potential correlation increases it. The effect appears as the sizable shift of quantized conductance plateaus in long wires, where the plateau transitions occur at energies much higher than the Landau band centers. The scale of the shift is of the order of the strength of the random potential and is insensitive to the strength of magnetic fields. Experimental implications are also discussed.