Probing mobility gaps at resistivity minima in the integer quantum Hall effect

Abstract

Magneto-transport measurements are performed on the AlGaAs/GaAs quantum Hall (QH) devices fabricated recently by our group. A series of Hall plateaus are observed with increasing the perpendicular magnetic field, and the mobility gaps resulting from localization effects are investigated at the minima in the longitudinal resistivity. Only the gap corresponding to the filling factor i=2 is close to the expected cyclotron energy, and our study supports that the low-field QH conductors may suffer problems due to insufficient localization. The anomalous change on the Hall slope is observed when the i=3 plateau is destroyed by the large current.