Diffusion Thermopower of Quantum Hall States Measured in Corbino Geometry

Abstract

We have measured the diffusion thermopower of a quantum Hall system in a Corbino setup. A concentric electron-temperature gradient is introduced by irradiating microwaves, via a coplanar waveguide, near the outer rim of a circular mesa of a two-dimensional electron gas. The resulting radial thermovoltages exhibit sawtooth-like oscillations with the magnetic field, taking large positive (negative) values just below (above) integer fillings with sign reversal at the center of the quantum Hall plateaus. The behavior is in agreement with a recent theory [Y. Barlas and K. Yang: Phys. Rev. B 85 (2012) 195107], which treats disorder within the self-consistent Born approximation.