A New Liquid Phase and Metal-Insulator Transition in Si MOSFETs

We argue that there is a new liquid phase in the two-dimensional electron system in Si MOSFETs at low enough electron densities. The recently observed metal-insulator transition results as a crossover from the percolation transition of the liquid phase through the disorder landscape in the system below the liquid-gas critical temperature. The consequences of our theory are discussed for variety of physical properties relevant to the recent experiments.Comment: 12 pages of RevTeX with 3 postscript figure

Calculations of exchange interaction in impurity band of two-dimensional semiconductors with out of plane impurities

We calculate the singlet-triplet splitting for a couple of two-dimensional electrons in the potential of two positively charged impurities which are located out of plane. We consider different relations between vertical distances of impurities $h_1$ and $h_2$ and their lateral distance $R$. Such a system has never been studied in atomic physics but the methods, worked out for regular two-atomic molecules and helium atom, have been found to be useful. Analytical expressions for several different limiting configurations of impurities are obtained an interpolated formula for intermediate range of parameters is proposed. The $R$-dependence of the splitting is shown to become weaker with increasing $h_1,h_2$.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, 5 figures. Submitted to Phys Rev.

Indication of the ferromagnetic instability in a dilute two-dimensional electron system

The magnetic field B_c, in which the electrons become fully spin-polarized, is found to be proportional to the deviation of the electron density from the zero-field metal-insulator transition in a two-dimensional electron system in silicon. The tendency of B_c to vanish at a finite electron density suggests a ferromagnetic instability in this strongly correlated electron system.Comment: 4 pages, postscript figures included. Revised versio

Metal-insulator transition at B=0 in a dilute two dimensional GaAs-AlGaAs hole gas

We report the observation of a metal insulator transition at B=0 in a high mobility two dimensional hole gas in a GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructure. A clear critical point separates the insulating phase from the metallic phase, demonstrating the existence of a well defined minimum metallic conductivity sigma(min)=2e/h. The sigma(T) data either side of the transition can be `scaled' on to one curve with a single parameter (To). The application of a parallel magnetic field increases sigma(min) and broadens the transition. We argue that strong electron-electron interactions (rs = 10) destroy phase coherence, removing quantum intereference corrections to the conductivity.Comment: 4 pages RevTex + 4 figures. Submitted to PRL. Originally posted 22 September 1997. Revised 12 October 1997 - minor changes to referencing, figure cations and figure

Unexpected Behavior of the Local Compressibility Near the B=0 Metal-Insulator Transition

We have measured the local electronic compressibility of a two-dimensional hole gas as it crosses the B=0 Metal-Insulator Transition. In the metallic phase, the compressibility follows the mean-field Hartree-Fock (HF) theory and is found to be spatially homogeneous. In the insulating phase it deviates by more than an order of magnitude from the HF predictions and is spatially inhomogeneous. The crossover density between the two types of behavior, agrees quantitatively with the transport critical density, suggesting that the system undergoes a thermodynamic change at the transition.Comment: As presented in EP2DS-13, Aug. 1999. (4 pages, 4 figures

Possible triplet superconductivity in MOSFETs

A theory that predicts a spin-triplet, even-parity superconducting ground state in two-dimensional electron systems is re-analyzed in the light of recent experiments showing a possible insulator-to-conductor transition in such systems. It is shown that the observations are consistent with such an exotic superconductivity mechanism, and predictions are made for experiments that would further corroborate or refute this proposal.Comment: 4 pp., REVTeX, psfig, 1 eps fig, final version as publishe

Interactions and Scaling in a Disordered Two-Dimensional Metal

We show that a non-Fermi liquid state of interacting electrons in two dimensions is stable in the presence of disorder and is a perfect conductor, provided the interactions are sufficiently strong. Otherwise, the disorder leads to localization as in the case of non-interacting electrons. This conclusion is established by examining the replica field theory in the weak disorder limit, but in the presence of arbitrary electron-electron interaction. Thus, a disordered two-dimensional metal is a perfect metal, but not a Fermi liquid.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe