Edge states in strong electric and magnetic fields in a two-dimensional semiconductor system

A detailed theoretical study of the density of states (DOS) for non-interacting electrons in strong electric and magnetic fields F and B is presented in the presence of a hard well edge in a two-dimensional electron system (2DES). The presence of the edge (taken along the x axis) in the 2DES lifts the x direction degeneracy of each Landau level (LL). Thus, the DOS for non-interacting electrons is observed to be in sharp contrast to the usual δ function peaks centered at each LL with energy E = EN = (N + 12)h̷ωc. Using the Greenʹs function approach, our numerical results show that (i) a strong electric field applied along the x direction will strongly modify the DOS and (ii) the DOS shifts to the higher energy side with increasing parameter α = eFlh̷ωc with l the radius of the cyclotron orbit.