Metal-insulator transition in the mercury-xenon system

A gradual conductivity transition as the atomic composition (X) of Hg/Xe samples is varied at 6 K has been observed. The temperature coefficient of the conductivity (TCC) follows the power law TCC α (X₀ ? X)^{2.4 ± 0.4} with X₀ = 0.790 ± 0.005, the conductivity at X₀ being 400 ± 50 (Ω-cm)^-1. The gradual conductivity transition is interpreted in terms of a Mott-Anderson metal-nonmetal transition smeared out by thermally activated hopping.     

Metal-insulator transition in perovskite oxides: A low-temperature perspective

A review is presented of recent experimental results of low temperature studies of composition driven metal-insulator transition in perovskite oxides of the ABO₃ class. The evolution of physical properties like conductivity, tunnelling, density of states and magnetoconductivity has been studied at low temperatures (T < 10 K) because composition is varied so that the sample goes from the metallic state to the critical region through a weakly localized region. The results show an interesting interplay of disorder and correlation effects. Special attention has been paid to the critical region which is marked by very low conductivity and dσ/dT>0. In this region the following important observations emerge. (1) It is possible to have a metallic state [σ(T = 0) = σ ₀ ≠ 0] with σ ₀/σ _Mott ? 1 and dσ/dT > 0. (2) At T < 2 K the conductivity follows a power law σ ～T^ν , where the exponent can be related to the finite frequency response of a zero temperature phase transition. (3) The Coulomb interaction plays a major role and evidence from tunnelling experiments suggests that a gap in the density of states at the Fermi level opens up continuously as the critical region is approached from the metallic side. (4) The magnetoconductivity is relatively smaller in the metallic and the weakly localized region (except the hole-doped LaMnO₃ and related systems) but becomes very large at the critical region.     

Metal-insulator transition in a two-layer electron-hole system

This paper discusses a quantum-mechanical metal-insulator transition that occurs in an anisotropic electron-hole system with the electrons and holes separated and confined to a double quantum well. The critical concentration n _c of carriers in the system above which the excitonic (insulating) phase becomes an electron-hole (metallic) phase is investigated, along with its dependence on the distance between wells D. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1654–1656 (September 1997)     

Phase transition in aperiodic spin chains

The quantum-mechanical transition in the ground state of some aperiodic spin chains is considered. Exact expressions for the energy gap and the dispersion relation of low-energy excitations close to the critical point are derived. Applications of these results to the study of particular quasiperiodic and random models are discussed.     

Metal-insulator transition in the quarter-filled frustrated checkerboard lattice

We study the electronic structure and correlations in the geometrically frustrated two dimensional checkerboard lattice. In the large U limit considered here we start from an extended Hubbard model of spinless fermions at half-filling. We investigate the model within two distinct Greens function approaches: In the first approach a single-site representation decoupling scheme is used that includes the effect of nearest neighbor charge fluctuations. In the second approach a cluster representation leading to a multiorbital model is investigated which includes intra-cluster correlations more rigorously and those between clusters on a mean field basis. It is demonstrated that with increasing nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V both approaches lead to a metal-insulator transition with an associated Mott-Hubbard like gap caused by V. Within the single site approach we also explore the possibility of charge order. Furthermore we investigate the evolution of the quasiparticle bands as funtion of V.     

Metal-insulator transition in two- and three-dimensional logarithmic plasmas

We consider the scaling of the mean square dipole moment in a plasma with logarithmic interactions in a two- and three-dimensional systems. In both cases, we establish the existence of a low-temperature regime where the mean square dipole moment does not scale with system size and a high-temperature regime where it does scale with system size. Thus, there is a nonanalytic change in the polarizability of the system as a function of temperature and hence a metal-insulator transition in both cases. The relevance of this transition in three dimensions to quantum phase transitions in (2+1)-dimensional systems is briefly discussed.     

Metal-insulator transition in hydrogen and in expanded alkali metals

Two methods are considered for testing the stability of an electron gas to formation of bound states round a pair of protons. In the first, the screened potential for the two protons is set up as a superposition, which is appropriate in a very high density electron gas. The condition for bound state formation is then examined in the two-centre problem. The density thus obtained is in the right density range to accord with the experiment of Hawke et al. for producing cold metallic hydrogen.This has encouraged us to attempt a more ambitious calculation, namely the investigation of the Heitler-London energy of a model H₂ molecule with screened electron-nuclear and electron-electron interactions, the screening being again through appropriate introduction of the Thomas-Fermi screening radius. The merit of this second model is that the theory contains the Heitler-London value of the dissociation energy of the free H₂ molecule in the limit when the density of the electron gas tends to zero. This feature, the binding energy of the diatomic and its importance in distinguishing the metal-insulator transition in hydrogen from those expected to occur in expanded alkali metals is stressed. The second point we stress is that, in both the models discussed above, there is a close connection with the one-centre criterion for bound state formation. Though we have not carried out detailed two-centre calculations for expanded alkali metals, nevertheless some discussion is given of the one-centre bound state criterion in these metals.Some remarks are also made on the dielectric function of molecular crystals, in relation to the insulator-metal transition.     

Metal-insulator phase transition and electrical switching in manganese dioxide

A complex investigation of the ac and dc electrical conductivities of the β phase of manganese dioxide has been performed in relation to its atomic structure. The change of conductivity mechanisms depending on temperature in a range of 450–25 K has been shown and the metal-insulator phase transition at low (<90 K) temperatures has been described. The specific feature of this transition by the Mott mechanism is that the metal phase exists at low temperatures, while at higher temperatures, the material manifests semiconductor properties. The low-temperature switching effect with a negative differential conductivity and an N-like current-voltage characteristic associated with the phase transition in manganese dioxide has been found.     

Metal-insulator transition and superconductivity in SnAr films

We studied the conductivity and superconducting transition temperature T_c of SnAr films. The films were prepared by condensing the SnAr mixture on a sapphire substrate held at 5 K. A plot of the conductivity as a function of Sn concentration shows a metal-insulator transition which agrees with a percolation model consisting of Sn clusters embedded in solid Ar. A drop of T_c is observed below the percolation threshold.     

Metal-insulator transition in two dimensions: experimental test of the two-parameter scaling

We report a detailed scaling analysis of resistivity rho(T,n) measured for several high-mobility 2D electron systems in the vicinity of the 2D metal-insulator transition. We analyzed the data using the two-parameter scaling approach and general scaling ideas. This enables us to determine the critical electron density, two critical indices, and temperature dependence for the separatrix in the self-consistent manner. In addition, we reconstruct the empirical scaling function describing a two-parameter surface which fits well the rho(T,n) data.     

Metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional systems with long-range correlated disorder

We study the localization properties of electrons in a two-dimensional model with on-site energies exhibiting long-range correlated disorder. The localization length and conductance of the system are calculated by using the finite size scaling method combined with transfer matrix technique. In the presence of long-range correlations, we find that there is a continuous line of fixed points indicating that the system undergoes a disorder driven Kosterlitz-Thouless-type metal-insulator transition. Received 6 March 2003 Published online 20 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: wsliu@sjtu.edu.cn     

The transition to aperiodic behavior in turbulent systems

Some systems achieve aperiodic temporal behavior through the production of successive half subharmonics. A recursive method is presented here that allows the explicit computation of this aperiodic behavior from the initial subharmonics. The results have a character universal over specific systems, so that all such transitions are characterized by noise of a universal internal similarity.     

Metal-insulator transition in a HgTe quantum well under hydrostatic pressure

The 2D semimetal in a 20 nm (100) HgTe quantum well is characterized by a comparatively low overlap between the conduction and the valence bands induced by lattice mismatch. In the present paper we report the results of transport measurements in this quantum well under hydrostatic pressure of 14.4 kbar. By applying pressure we have further reduced the band overlap, thereby creating favorable conditions for the formation of the excitonic insulator state. As a result, we observed that the metallic-like temperature dependence of the conductivity at lowering temperature sharply changes to the activated behavior, signaling the onset of an excitonic insulator regime.