Title: Self-duality and a Hall-insulator phase near the superconductor-to-insulator transition in indium-oxide films

Abstract

We combine measurements of the longitudinal ( ${\rho }_{xx}$ ) and Hall ( ${\rho }_{xy}$ ) resistivities of disordered 2D amorphous indium-oxide films to study the magnetic-field tuned superconductor-to-insulator transition (H-SIT) in the $T\to 0$ limit. At the critical field, $H_c$ , the full resistivity tensor is T independent with ${\rho }_{xx}\left(H_c\right)=h/4e^2$ and ${\rho }_{xy}\left(H_c\right)=0$ within experimental uncertainty in all films (i.e., these appear to be “universal” values); this is strongly suggestive that there is a particle–vortex self-duality at $H=H_c$ . The transition separates the (presumably) superconducting state at $H<H_c$ from a “Hall-insulator” phase in which ${\rho }_{xx}\to \mathrm{\infty }$ as $T\to 0$ whereas ${\rho }_{xy}$ approaches a nonzero value smaller than its “classical value” $H/nec$ ; i.e., $0<{\rho }_{xy}<H/nec$ . A still higher characteristic magnetic field, $H_c^{\text{*}}>H_c$ , at which the Hall resistance is T independent and roughly equal to its classical value, ${\rho }_{xy}\approx H/nec$ , marks an additional crossover to a high-field regime (probably to a Fermi insulator) in which ${\rho }_{xy}>H/nec$ and possibly diverges as $T\to 0$ . We also highlight a profound analogy between the H-SIT and quantum-Hall liquid-to-insulator transitions (QHIT).

Authors:

Breznay, Nicholas P.; Steiner, Myles A.; Kivelson, Steven Allan; Kapitulnik, Aharon

Publication Date:

2015-12-28

Research Org.:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1235511

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1236160

Report Number(s):

NREL/JA-5J00-65695
Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC36-08GO28308; AC02-76SF00515; DMR-1157490

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 113 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:

National Academy of Sciences

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; superconductor-insulator transition; quantum phase transition; self-duality; Hall insulator