Hysteresis effect due to the exchange Coulomb interaction in short-period superlattices in tilted magnetic fields

Abstract

We calculate the ground-state of a two-dimensional electron gas in a short-period lateral potential in magnetic field, with the Coulomb electron-electron interaction included in the Hartree-Fock approximation. For a sufficiently short period the dominant Coulomb effects are determined by the exchange interaction. We find numerical solutions of the self-consistent equations that have hysteresis properties when the magnetic field is tilted and increased, such that the perpendicular component is always constant. This behavior is a result of the interplay of the exchange interaction with the energy dispersion and the spin splitting. We suggest that hysteresis effects of this type could be observable in magneto-transport and magnetization experiments on quantum-wire and quantum-dot superlattices.

3 pages, 3 figures, Revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev. B