This article is cited in 5 papers

CONDENSED MATTER

The mesoscopic chiral metal – insulator transition

S. Kettemann^a, B. Kramer^a, T. Ohtsuki<sup>b

a</sup> Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
^b Sophia University, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Abstract: Sharp localization transitions of chiral edge states in disordered quantum wires, subject to strong magnetic field, are shown to be driven by crossovers from two- to one-dimensional localization of bulk states. As a result, the two-terminal conductance is found to exhibit at zero temperature discontinuous transitions between exactly integer plateau values and zero, reminiscent of first order phase transitions. We discuss the corresponding phase diagram. The spin of the electrons is shown to result in a multitude of phases, when the spin degeneracy is lifted by the Zeeman energy. The width of conductance plateaus is found to depend sensitively on the spin flip rate $1/\tau _s$.

PACS: 72.10.Fk, 72.15.Rn, 73.20.Fz

Received: 16.07.2004

Language: English

 English version: Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters, 2004, 80:4, 285–289

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