No Arabic abstract
Experimental evidence for the possible universality classes of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in two dimensions (2D) is discussed. Sufficiently strong disorder, in particular, changes the nature of the transition. Comprehensive studies of the charge dynamics are also reviewed, describing evidence that the MIT in a 2D electron system in silicon should be viewed as the melting of the Coulomb glass. Comparisons are made to recent results on novel 2D materials and quasi-2D strongly correlated systems, such as cuprates.
Experimental results on the metal-insulator transition and related phenomena in strongly interacting two-dimensional electron systems are discussed. Special attention is given to recent results for the strongly enhanced spin susceptibility, effective mass, and thermopower in low-disordered silicon MOSFETs.
The pressure-induced insulator to metal transition (IMT) of layered magnetic nickel phosphorous tri-sulfide NiPS3 was studied in-situ under quasi-uniaxial conditions by means of electrical resistance (R) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. This sluggish transition is shown to occur at 35 GPa. Transport measurements show no evidence of superconductivity to the lowest measured temperature (~ 2 K). The structure results presented here differ from earlier in-situ work that subjected the sample to a different pressure state, suggesting that in NiPS3 the phase stability fields are highly dependent on strain. It is suggested that careful control of the strain is essential when studying the electronic and magnetic properties of layered van der Waals solids.
Measurements of conductance $G$ on short, wide, high-mobility Si-MOSFETs reveal both a two-dimensional metal-insulator transition (MIT) at moderate temperatures (1 $<~ T <$ 4~K) and mesoscopic fluctuations of the conductance at low temperatures ($T~ <$ 1~K). Both were studied as a function of chemical potential (carrier concentration $n_s$) controlled by gate voltage ($V_g$) and magnetic field $B$ near the MIT. Fourier analysis of the low temperature fluctuations reveals several fluctuation scales in $V_g$ that vary non-monotonically near the MIT. At higher temperatures, $G(V_g,B)$ is similar to large FETs and exhibits a MIT. All of the observations support the suggestion that the MIT is driven by Coulomb interactions among the carriers.
We have varied the disorder in a two-dimensional electron system in silicon by applying substrate bias. When the disorder becomes sufficiently low, we observe the emergence of the metallic phase, and find evidence for a metal-insulator transition (MIT): the single-parameter scaling of conductivity with temperature near a critical electron density. We obtain the scaling function $beta$, which determines the length (or temperature) dependence of the conductance. $beta$ is smooth and monotonic, and linear in the logarithm of the conductance near the MIT, in agreement with the scaling theory for interacting systems.
We study the doping-driven Mott metal-insulator transition for multi-orbital Hubbard models with Hunds exchange coupling at finite temperatures. As in the single-orbital Hubbard model, the transition is of first-order within dynamical mean field theory, with a coexistence region where two solutions can be stabilized. We find, that in the presence of finite Hunds coupling, the insulating phase is connected to a badly metallic phase, which extends to surprisingly large dopings. While fractional power-law behavior of the self-energies on the Matsubara axis is found on both sides of the transition, a regime with frozen local moments develops only on the branch connected to the insulating phase.