Large Skyrmions in an Al(0.13)Ga(0.87)As Quantum Well

Abstract

We report tilted-field magnetotransport measurements of two-dimensional electron systems in a 200 Angstrom-wide Al(0.13)Ga(0.87)As quantum well. We extract the energy gap for the quantum Hall state at Landau level filling ν=1 as a function of the tilt angle. The relatively small effective Lande g-factor (g ~ 0.043) of the structure leads to skyrmionic excitations composed of the largest number of spins yet reported (s ~ 50). Although consistent with the skyrmion size observed, Hartree-Fock calculations, even after corrections, significantly overestimate the energy gaps over the entire range of our data.