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

Journal Article · Mon Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1522435113· OSTI ID:1235511

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

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).

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308; AC02-76SF00515; DMR-1157490
• OSTI ID: 1235511
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1236160
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5J00-65695
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 113 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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