Abstract
We report the observation of an apparent parallel magnetic-field-induced metal-insulator transition in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas for which spin and localization physics most likely play no major role. The high-mobility metallic phase at low field is consistent with the established Fermi liquid transport theory including phonon scattering, whereas the phase at higher field shows a large insulatinglike negative temperature dependence at resistances much smaller than the quantum of resistance . We argue that this observation is a direct manifestation of a quantum-classical crossover arising predominantly from the magneto-orbital coupling between the finite width of the two-dimensional electron gas and the in-plane magnetic field.
- Received 19 March 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.086804
© 2011 American Physical Society