Spectroscopic Study of Quantized Breakdown Voltage States of the Quantum Hall Effect

Quantized breakdown voltage states are observed in a second, wide, high-quality GaAs/AlGaAs sample made from another wafer, demonstrating that quantization of the longitudinal voltage drop along the sample is a general feature of the quantum Hall effect in the breakdown regime. The voltage states are interpreted in a simple energy conservation model as occurring when electrons are excited to higher Landau levels and then return to the original level. A spectroscopic study of these dissipative voltage states reveals how well they are quantized. The statistical variations of the quantized voltages increase linearly with quantum number.