Pseudospin Anisotropy Classification of Quantum Hall Ferromagnets

Abstract

Broken symmetry ground states with uniform electron density are common in quantum Hall systems when two Landau levels simultaneously approach the chemical potential at integer filling factor $ν$. The close analogy between these two-dimensional electron system states and conventional itinerant electron ferromagnets can be emphasized by using a pseudospin label to distinguish the two Landau levels. As in conventional ferromagnets, the evolution of the system's state as external field parameters are varied is expected to be sensitive to the dependence of ground state energy on pseudospin orientation. We discuss the predictions of Hartree-Fock theory for the dependence of the sign and magnitude of the pseudospin anisotropy energy on the nature of the crossing Landau levels. We build up a classification scheme for quantum Hall ferromagnets that applies for single layer and bilayer systems with two aligned Landau levels distinguished by any combination of real-spin, orbit-radius, or growth direction degree-of-freedom quantum numbers. The possibility of in-situ tuning between easy-axis and easy-plane quantum Hall ferromagnets is discussed for biased bilayer systems with total filling factors $ν=3$ or $ν=4$. Detailed predictions are made for the bias dependence of pseudospin reversal properties in $ν=3$ bilayer systems.