Subband engineering even-denominator quantum Hall states

Abstract

Proposed even-denominator fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) states suggest the possibility of excitations with non-Abelian braid statistics. Recent experiments on wide square quantum wells indicate even-denominator FQHE even under electrostatic tilt. We theoretically analyze these structures and develop a procedure to accurately test proposed quantum Hall wave functions. We find that tilted wells favor partial subband polarization to yield Abelian even-denominator states. Our results show that tilting quantum wells effectively engineers different interaction potentials allowing exploration of a wide variety of even-denominator states.