Transition between quantum Hall conductor and Hall insulator in Si MOSFET’s

Abstract
We measured the conductor-insulator transition in a two-dimensional electron system in a Si metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor with low peak electron mobility μpeak=0.91 m2/V s and compared the results with those observed in a sample with μpeak=2.71 m2/V s. The behavior of σxx and σxy at Landau-level filling factor ν=2 depends on a dimensionless parameter ωcτ in both samples. Here, ωc is the cyclotron frequency and τ is the relaxation time of an electron determined in the absence of magnetic field. Oscillations of phase boundaries in ν≳1 regions in the Ns-B plane are similar to each other. These observations show that the transition is caused by Anderson localization due to disorder, not by a formation of an electron solid.