Evidence for a Finite Temperature Insulator

In superconductors the zero-resistance current-flow is protected from dissipation at finite temperatures (T) by virtue of the short-circuit condition maintained by the electrons that remain in the condensed state. The recently suggested finite-T insulator and the "superinsulating" phase are different because any residual mechanism of conduction will eventually become dominant as the finite-T insulator sets-in. If the residual conduction is small it may be possible to observe the transition to these intriguing states. We show that the conductivity of the high magnetic-field insulator terminating superconductivity in amorphous indium-oxide exhibits an abrupt drop, and seem to approach a zero conductance at T<0.04 K. We discuss our results in the light of theories that lead to a finite-T insulator

The quantized Hall effect in the presence of resistance fluctuations

We present an experimental study of mesoscopic, two-dimensional electronic systems at high magnetic fields. Our samples, prepared from a low-mobility InGaAs/InAlAs wafer, exhibit reproducible, sample specific, resistance fluctuations. Focusing on the lowest Landau level we find that, while the diagonal resistivity displays strong fluctuations, the Hall resistivity is free of fluctuations and remains quantized at its $\nu=1$ value, $h/e^{2}$. This is true also in the insulating phase that terminates the quantum Hall series. These results extend the validity of the semicircle law of conductivity in the quantum Hall effect to the mesoscopic regime.Comment: Includes more data, changed discussio

Evidence for charge-flux duality near the quantum Hall liquid to insulator transition

We examine the longitudinal, non-linear, current-voltage characteristics near the quantum Hall liquid to insulator transition and show that a simple mapping exists between the characteristics on the quantum Hall side and those on the insulating side of the transition. More precisely, at filling factors related by the law of corresponding states the current and voltage simply trade places. We interpret these observations as evidence for the existence, in the composite boson description, of charge-flux duality near disorder dominated transitions in quantum Hall systems. (Appearances notwithstanding, this is an experimental paper.)Comment: 10 pages, Revtex 3.0, 4 uuencoded postscript figure

Universality in the Crossover between Edge Channel and Bulk Transport in the Quantum Hall Regime

We present a new theoretical approach for the integer quantum Hall effect, which is able to describe the inter-plateau transitions as well as the transition to the Hall insulator. We find two regimes (metallic and insulator like) of the top Landau level, in which the dissipative bulk current appears in different directions. The regimes are separated by a temperature invariant point.Comment: 4 page, 2 eps figures included, submitte

The Quantized Hall Insulator: A New Insulator in Two-Dimensions

Quite generally, an insulator is theoretically defined by a vanishing conductivity tensor at the absolute zero of temperature. In classical insulators, such as band insulators, vanishing conductivities lead to diverging resistivities. In other insulators, in particular when a high magnetic field (B) is added, it is possible that while the magneto-resistance diverges, the Hall resistance remains finite, which is known as a Hall insulator. In this letter we demonstrate experimentally the existence of another, more exotic, insulator. This insulator, which terminates the quantum Hall effect series in a two-dimensional electron system, is characterized by a Hall resistance which is approximately quantized in the quantum unit of resistance h/e^2. This insulator is termed a quantized Hall insulator. In addition we show that for the same sample, the insulating state preceding the QHE series, at low-B, is of the HI kind.Comment: 4 page

Universality at integer quantum Hall transitions

We report in this paper results of experimental and theoretical studies of transitions between different integer quantum Hall phases, as well as transition between the insulating phase and quantum Hall phases at high magnetic fields. We focus mainly on universal properties of the transitions. We demonstrate that properly defined conductivity tensor is universal at the transitions. We also present numerical results of a non-interacting electron model, which suggest that the Thouless conductance is universal at integer quantum Hall transitions, just like the conductivity tensor. Finite temperature and system size effects near the transition point are also studied.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figure

Universality in an integer Quantum Hall transition

An integer Quantum Hall effect transition is studied in a modulation doped p-SiGe sample. In contrast to most examples of such transitions the longitudinal and Hall conductivities at the critical point are close to 0.5 and 1.5 (e^2/h), the theoretically expected values. This allows the extraction of a scattering parameter, describing both conductivity components, which depends exponentially on filling factor. The strong similarity of this functional form to those observed for transitions into the Hall insulating state and for the B=0 metal- insulator transition implies a universal quantum critical behaviour for the transitions. The observation of this behaviour in the integer Quantum Hall effect, for this particular sample, is attributed to the short-ranged character of the potential associated with the dominant scatterers

Excessive noise as a test for many-body localization

Recent experimental reports suggested the existence of a finite-temperature insulator in the vicinity of the superconductor-insulator transition. The rapid decay of conductivity over a narrow temperature range was theoretically linked to both a finite-temperature transition to a many-body-localized state, and to a charge-Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Here we report of low-frequency noise measurements of such insulators to test for many-body localization. We observed a huge enhancement of the low-temperatures noise when exceeding a threshold voltage for nonlinear conductivity and discuss our results in light of the theoretical models

A New Transport Regime in the Quantum Hall Effect

This paper describes an experimental identification and characterization of a new low temperature transport regime near the quantum Hall-to-insulator transition. In this regime, a wide range of transport data are compactly described by a simple phenomenological form which, on the one hand, is inconsistent with either quantum Hall or insulating behavior and, on the other hand, is also clearly at odds with a quantum-critical, or scaling, description. We are unable to determine whether this new regime represents a clearly defined state or is a consequence of finite temperature and sample-size measurements.Comment: Revtex, 3 pages, 2 figure