Year: 2014
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: At temperatures T → 0, strongly interacting two-dimensional (2D) electron systems manifest characteristic insulating behaviors that are key for understanding the nature of the ground state in light of the interplay between disorder and electron-electron interaction. In contrast to the hopping conductance demonstrated in the insulating side of the metal-to-insulator transition, the ultra-high quality 2D systems exhibit nonactivated T-dependence of the conductivity even for dilute carrier concentrations down to 7×108 cm−2. The apparent metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) occurs for a large rs value around 40 for which a Wigner Crystalllization is expected. The magnetoresistance for a series of carrier densities in the vicinity of the transition exhibits a characteristic sign change in weak perpendicular magnetic field. Within the Wigner Crystallization regime (with rs > 40), we report an experimental observation of a characteristic nonlinear threshold behavior from a high-resolution dc dynamical response as an evidence for aWigner crystallization in high-purity GaAs 2D hole systems in zero magnetic field. The system under an increasing current drive exhibits voltage oscillations with negative differential resistance. They confirm the coexistence of a moving crystal along with striped edge states as observed for electrons on helium surfaces. Moreover, the threshold is well below the typical classical levels due to a different pinning and depinning mechanism that is possibly related to quantum processes.
Source: AIP conference proceedings
DOI: 10.1063/1.4870193
Authors: Jian Huang, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West
Institutions: Wayne State University, Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1503104493