What Determines the Fermi Wave Vector of Composite Fermions?

Abstract

Composite fermions (CFs), exotic particles formed by pairing an even number of flux quanta to each electron, provide a fascinating description of phenomena exhibited by interacting two-dimensional electrons at high magnetic fields. At and near Landau level filling ν=1/2, CFs occupy a Fermi sea and exhibit commensurability effects when subjected to a periodic potential modulation. We observe a pronounced asymmetry in the magnetic field positions of the commensurability resistance minima of CFs with respect to the field at ν=1/2. This unexpected asymmetry is consistent with the CFs' Fermi wave vector being determined by the minority carriers in the lowest Landau level, and suggests a breaking of the particle-hole symmetry for CFs near ν=1/2.