Scientific/Technical Report

[摘要] Measurements of the thermoelectric power of the dilute, strongly-interacting two-dimensional electron system in high-mobility, low-disorder silicon MOSFETs were obtained at low temperatures down to 0.2 K. With decreasing density n_s, the thermopower was found to exhibit a sharp increase by more than an order of magnitude, tending to a divergence at a finite, disorder-independent density n_t. The critical behavior of the thermopower observed in our experiments provides clear evidence for an interaction-induced quantum phase transition to a new phase at low density in a strongly interacting 2D electron system, thereby settling a 20-year debate.

[发布日期] 2014-07-18

[学科分类] 凝聚态物理

[关键词] Thermoelectric power;metal-insulator transition;two dimensional electron systems;quantum phase transition;electron-electron interactions;high-mobiility;silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-trasistors (MOSFETs).