Vortex structure in Wigner molecules

Abstract

Abstract We study clusters of vortices for Wigner molecules formed in the laboratory frame induced by anisotropy of the external potential or electron effective mass. For anisotropic systems the ground-state vortex structure undergoes a continuous evolution when the magnetic field is varied in contrast to isotropic systems where it changes rapidly at angular momentum transitions. In fractional quantum Hall conditions the additional vortices first appear on the edges of the confined system far from the axis of a linear Wigner molecule and then approach the electron positions in growing magnetic field. For an isotropic mass the vortices tend to stay at the line perpendicular to the Wigner molecule axis and pass to the axis for the lowest Landau level filling factor of $$\nu \simeq \frac{1}{5}$$ ν ≃ 1 5 . In phosphorene the behaviour of the vortices is influenced by a strong anisotropy of the electron effective mass. The vortices are stabilized off the axis of the molecule when it is oriented along the armchair crystal direction. For the molecule oriented along the zigzag direction the vortices are transfered to the molecule axis already at $$\nu \simeq \frac{1}{3}$$ ν ≃ 1 3 . The transfer is associated with an antivortex creation and annihilation near the electron position.