Universal Magnetic-Field-Driven Metal-Insulator-Metal Transformations in Graphite and Bismuth

TL;DR

This paper investigates magnetic-field-induced metal-insulator-metal transitions in graphite and bismuth, revealing universal behavior described by power laws and linking these transitions to Landau level quantization and quantum Hall effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic-field-driven phase transitions in graphite and bismuth follow universal power-law boundaries and connects these phenomena to quantum Hall effects and quantum phase transitions.

Findings

Transition boundaries follow power law T ~ (B - B_c)^k with k ≈ 0.45

Insulator-metal-insulator transformations occur in Landau level regimes

Cascade of I-M-I transitions related to quantum Hall effect in graphite

Abstract

Applied magnetic field induces metal - insulator and re-entrant insulator-metal transitions in both graphite and rhombohedral bismuth. The corresponding transition boundaries plotted on the magnetic field - temperature (B - T) plane nearly coincide for these semimetals and can be best described by power laws T ~ (B - B_c)^k, where B_c is a critical field at T = 0 and k = 0.45 +/- 0.05. We show that insulator-metal-insulator (I-M-I) transformations take place in the Landau level quantization regime and illustrate how the IMT in quasi-3D graphite transforms into a cascade of I-M-I transitions, related to the quantum Hall effect in quasi-2D graphite samples. We discuss the possible coupling of superconducting and excitonic correlations with the observed phenomena, as well as the signatures of quantum phase transitions associated with the M-I and I-M transformations.