Impact of in-situ controlled disorder screening on fractional quantum Hall effects and composite-fermion transport

Abstract

We examine the impact of random potential due to remote impurites (RIs) and its in-situ controlled screening on fractional quantum Hall effects (FQHEs) around Landau-level filling factor $\nu = 1/2$. The experiment is made possible by using a dual-gate GaAs quantum well (QW) that allows for the independent control of the density $n_{e}$ of the two-dimensional electron system in the QW and that ($n_\text{SL}$) of excess electrons in the modulation-doping superlattice. As the screening is reduced by decreasing $n_\text{SL}$ at a fixed $n_{e}$, we observe a decrease in the apparent energy gap of the FQHEs deduced from thermal activation, which signifies a corresponding increase in the disorder broadening $\Gamma$ of composite fermions (CFs). Interestingly, the increase in $\Gamma$ is accompanied by a noticeable increase in the longitudinal resistivity at $\nu = 1/2$ ($\rho_{1/2}$), with a much stronger correlation with $\Gamma$ than electron mobility $\mu$ has. The in-situ control of RI screening enables us to disentangle the contributions of RIs and background impurities (BIs) to $\rho_{1/2}$, with the latter in good agreement with the CF theory. We construct a scaling plot that helps in estimating the BI contribution to $\rho_{1/2}$ for a given set of $n_{e}$ and $\mu$.