Disorder and interactions in quantum Hall ferromagnets near $\nu=1$

Abstract

We report on a finite-size Hartree-Fock study of the competition between disorder and interactions in a two-dimensional electron gas near Landau level filling factor $\nu=1$. The ground state at $\nu=1$ evolves with increasing disorder from a fully spin-polarized ferromagnet with a charge gap, to a partially spin-polarized ferromagnetic Anderson insulator, to a quasi-metallic paramagnet at the critical point between $i=0$ and $i=2$ quantum Hall plateaus. Away from $\nu=1$, the ground state evolves from a ferromagnetic Skyrmion quasiparticle glass, to a conventional quasiparticle glass, and finally to a conventional Anderson insulator. We comment on signatures of these different regimes in low-temperature transport and NMR lineshape and peak position data.