Quantum Hall Effect on the Hofstadter Butterfly

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental attempts to detect the Hofstadter butterfly, we numerically calculate the Hall conductivity in a modulated two-dimensional electron system with disorder in the quantum Hall regime. We identify the critical energies where the states are extended for each of butterfly subbands, and obtain the trajectory as a function of the disorder. Remarkably, we find that when the modulation becomes anisotropic, the critical energy branches accompanying a change of the Hall conductivity.