2 research outputs found
Two-species percolation and Scaling theory of the metal-insulator transition in two dimensions
Recently, a simple non-interacting-electron model, combining local quantum
tunneling via quantum point contacts and global classical percolation, has been
introduced in order to describe the observed ``metal-insulator transition'' in
two dimensions [1]. Here, based upon that model, a two-species-percolation
scaling theory is introduced and compared to the experimental data. The two
species in this model are, on one hand, the ``metallic'' point contacts, whose
critical energy lies below the Fermi energy, and on the other hand, the
insulating quantum point contacts. It is shown that many features of the
experiments, such as the exponential dependence of the resistance on
temperature on the metallic side, the linear dependence of the exponent on
density, the scale of the critical resistance, the quenching of the
metallic phase by a parallel magnetic field and the non-monotonic dependence of
the critical density on a perpendicular magnetic field, can be naturally
explained by the model.
Moreover, details such as the nonmonotonic dependence of the resistance on
temperature or the inflection point of the resistance vs. parallel magnetic are
also a natural consequence of the theory. The calculated parallel field
dependence of the critical density agrees excellently with experiments, and is
used to deduce an experimental value of the confining energy in the vertical
direction. It is also shown that the resistance on the ``metallic'' side can
decrease with decreasing temperature by an arbitrary factor in the degenerate
regime ().Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure