Collapse of $\rho_{xx}$ ringlike structures in 2DEGs under tilted magnetic fields

Abstract

In the quantum Hall regime, the longitudinal resistivity $\rho_{xx}$ plotted as a density--magnetic-field ($n_{2D}-B$) diagram displays ringlike structures due to the crossings of two sets of spin split Landau levels from different subbands [e.g., Zhang \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{95}, 216801 (2005)]. For tilted magnetic fields, some of these ringlike structures "shrink" as the tilt angle is increased and fully collapse at $\theta_c \approx 6^\circ$. Here we theoretically investigate the topology of these structures via a non-interacting model for the 2DEG. We account for the inter Landau-level coupling induced by the tilted magnetic field via perturbation theory. This coupling results in anti-crossings of Landau levels with parallel spins. With the new energy spectrum, we calculate the corresponding $n_{2D}-B$ diagram of the density of states (DOS) near the Fermi level. We argue that the DOS displays the same topology as $\rho_{xx}$ in the $n_{2D}-B$ diagram. For the ring with filling factor $\nu=4$, we find that the anti-crossings make it shrink for increasing tilt angles and collapse at a large enough angle. Using effective parameters to fit the $\theta = 0^\circ$ data, we find a collapsing angle $\theta_c \approx 3.6^\circ$. Despite this factor-of-two discrepancy with the experimental data, our model captures the essential mechanism underlying the ring collapse.