Decoherence induced by magnetic impurities in quantum Hall system

Abstract

Scattering by magnetic impurities is known to destroy coherence of electron motion in metals and semiconductors. We investigate the decoherence introduced in a single act of electron scattering by a magnetic impurity in a quantum Hall system. To this end we introduce a fictitious nonunitary scattering matrix $\mathcal{S}$ for electrons that reproduces the exactly calculated scattering probabilities. The strength of decoherence is identified by the deviation of eigenvalues of the product $\mathcal{S}\mathcal{S}^{\dagger}$ from unity. Using the fictitious scattering matrix, we estimate the width of the metallic region at the quantum Hall effect inter-plateau transition and its dependence on the exchange coupling strength and the degree of polarization of magnetic impurities.

13 pages, 4 figures