Resistively Detected NMR Lineshapes in a Local Filling ν<1 Quantum Hall Breakdown

Abstract

Resistively‐detected nuclear magnetic resonance (RDNMR) is a unique characterization method enabling highly sensitive NMR detection for a single quantum nanostructure, such as a quantum point contact (QPC). In many studies, dynamic nuclear polarization and RDNMR detection are used in a quantum Hall breakdown regime of a local QPC filling factor of 1 (νqpc = 1). However, the RDNMR lineshapes are complicated and still not fully understood yet. Herein, the nuclear spins are systematically polarized by current pumping from the close vicinity of the νqpc = 1 conductance plateau all the way down to pinch‐off point, providing clear evidence that the spin‐flip scattering between two edge channels at the lowest Landau level still occurs in the constriction even when it is close to the pinch off point. The collected RDNMR spectra reveal two sets of distinguished features. First, in a strong to intermediate tunneling regime, we observe an ordinary resistance dip lineshape with snake‐like transition frequencies, indicative of spatial modulation of electron density in the QPC. Second, in a weak tunneling regime, the spectrum turns into a dispersive lineshape, which is interpreted due to the build‐up of two sets of nuclear spin polarization that are in contact with different electron spin polarization.