RECONSTRUCTION OF FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL EDGES

Edge reconstruction has been a well-known effect for integer quantum Hall liquids in the presence of both electron interactions and a confining potential generated by charged background. At more generic fractional fillings, we point out that confined two-dimensional interacting electrons can exhibit the similar reconstruction effect. Our exact diagonalization results show that, in a fractional quantum Hall system with a sharp cleaved edge potential, the electron density oscillation near the edge increases with the distance between the electron gas and the background charge layer. As a results, the outermost hump can detach from the bulk beyond certain point. We suggest that the edge reconstruction effect is relevant to the recent edge tunneling experiments,1 as well as the microwave absorption experiment on two-dimensional electrons in an antidot array.2 Calculating the finite-temperature density profiles, we estimate the temperature above which the edge reconstruction disappears to further discuss the relevance to the microwave absorption experiment.