Weak antilocalization in a 2D electron gas with chiral splitting of the spectrum

Motivated by the recent observation of the metal-insulator transition in Si MOSFETs, a study is made of the quantum interference correction to the conductivity in the presence of the Bychkov-Rashba spin splitting. For a small splitting, a crossover from the localizing to antilocalizing regime is obtained. The antilocalization correction vanishes, however, in the limit of a large separation between the chiral branches. The relevance of the chiral splitting for the 2D electron gas in Si MOSFETs is discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 2, 118–123 (25 January 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.