Universal Behavior of the Resistance Noise across the Metal-Insulator Transition in Silicon Inversion Layers

TL;DR

This study reveals that resistance noise exhibits universal behavior near the metal-insulator transition in silicon inversion layers, with glassy dynamics and long-range correlations observed across different samples.

Contribution

It demonstrates the universal nature of resistance noise behavior and glassy dynamics in 2D electron systems near the metal-insulator transition in silicon.

Findings

Glassy freezing occurs in all Si inversion layers near the transition.

The metallic glass phase size varies with disorder, shrinking in high-mobility samples.

Long-range correlations are present in the glassy phase, indicating hierarchical dynamics.

Abstract

Studies of low-frequency resistance noise show that the glassy freezing of the two-dimensional (2D) electron system in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition occurs in all Si inversion layers. The size of the metallic glass phase, which separates the 2D metal and the (glassy) insulator, depends strongly on disorder, becoming extremely small in high-mobility samples. The behavior of the second spectrum, an important fourth-order noise statistic, indicates the presence of long-range correlations between fluctuators in the glassy phase, consistent with the hierarchical picture of glassy dynamics.