Hysteretic Resistance Spikes in Quantum Hall Ferromagnets without Domains

Henrique J. P. Freire, J. Carlos Egues
2007 Physical Review Letters  
We use spin-density-functional theory to study recently reported hysteretic magnetoresistance ρ_xx spikes in Mn-based 2D electron gases [Jaroszyński et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. (2002)]. We find hysteresis loops in our calculated Landau fan diagrams and total energies signaling quantum-Hall-ferromagnet phase transitions. Spin-dependent exchange-correlation effects are crucial to stabilize the relevant magnetic phases arising from distinct symmetry-broken excited- and ground-state solutions of the
more » ... n-Sham equations. Besides hysteretic spikes in ρ_xx, we predict hysteretic dips in the Hall resistance ρ_xy. Our theory, without domain walls, satisfactorily explains the recent data.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.026801 pmid:17678243 fatcat:ba5m6kdfkfh6dgph2alt56ve64