Abstract
We give a perspective on the Hofstadter’s butterfly (fractal energy spectrum in magnetic fields), which we have shown to arise specifically in three-dimensional (3D) systems in our previous work. (i) We first obtain the “phase diagram” on a parameter space of the transfer energies and the magnetic field for the appearance of Hofstadter’s butterfly spectrum in anisotropic crystals in 3D. (ii) We show that the orientation of the external magnetic field can be arbitrary to have the 3D butterfly. (iii) We show that the butterfly is beyond the semiclassical description. (iv) The required magnetic field for a representative organic metal is estimated to be modest if we adopt higher Landau levels for the butterfly. (v) We give a simpler way of deriving the topological invariants that represent the quantum Hall numbers (i.e., two Hall conductivity in 3D, in units of
- Received 10 May 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.65.045310
©2002 American Physical Society