Two-dimensional metal-insulator transition and in-plane magnetoresistance in a high mobility strained Si quantum well

TL;DR

This study investigates the metal-insulator transition and in-plane magnetoresistance in a high mobility strained Si quantum well, revealing a low critical density for transition and universal behavior of magnetoresistance across various densities.

Contribution

It provides the first observation of the lowest critical density for metal-insulator transition in Si 2D systems and demonstrates universal magnetoresistance behavior when scaled by the spin-polarization field.

Findings

Critical density for transition is ~0.32 x 10^{11} cm^{-2}.

In-plane magnetoresistance saturates at a finite value for B_{ip} > B_c.

Magnetoresistance curves collapse onto a single universal curve when scaled by B_c.

Abstract

The apparent metal-insulator transition is observed in a high quality two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in the strained Si quantum well of a Si/Si_{1-x}Ge_x heterostructure with mobility \mu=1.9 x 10^5 cm^2/Vs at density n=1.45 x 10^{11} cm^{-2}. The critical density, at which the thermal coefficient of low T resistivity changes sign, is ~ 0.32 x 10^{11} cm^{-2}, so far the lowest observed in the Si 2D systems. In-plane magnetoresistance study was carried out in the higher density range where the 2DES shows the metallic-like behavior. It is observed that the in-plane magnetoresistance first increases as ~ B_{ip}^2 and then saturates to a finite value \rho(B_c) for B_{ip} > B_c. The full spin-polarization field B_c decreases monotonically with n but appears to saturate to a finite value as n approaches zero. Furthermore, \rho(B_c)/\rho(0) ~ 1.8 for all the densities ranging from 0.35 x 10^{11} to 1.45 x 10^{11} cm^{-2} and, when plotted versus B_{ip}/B_c, collapses onto a single curve.