# Apparent Metallic Behavior at 𝐵=0 of a Two Dimensional Electron System in AlAs

## Abstract

We report the observation of metallic-like behavior at low temperatures and zero magnetic field in two dimensional (2D) electrons in an AlAs quantum well. At high densities the resistance of the sample decreases with decreasing temperature, but as the density is reduced the behavior changes to insulating, with the resistance increasing as the temperature is decreased. The effect is similar to that observed in 2D electrons in Si-MOSFETs, and in 2D holes in SiGe and GaAs, and points to the generality of this phenomenon.

The question of whether or not a metal-insulator transition can occur in two dimensions at zero magnetic field has been of great recent interest. Using scaling arguments, Abrahams et al. showed that a non-interacting 2D carrier system with any amount of disorder will be localized at zero temperature. Subsequent experiments provided evidence to support this theoretical prediction. However, recently, various investigators have discovered 2D carrier systems that show metallic behavior. They observe that for a range of 2D densities ($`n`$), the resistivity of their samples decreases by nearly an order of magnitude as the temperature ($`T`$) is decreased. When $`n`$ is reduced below a critical density ($`n_c`$) they observe a transition to insulating behavior. One difference between the earlier and the more recent experiments is that the new samples have a much higher carrier mobility ($`\mu `$). One theoretical investigation asserts that this higher $`\mu `$ combines with a broken inversion symmetry in the confining potential well to allow spin orbit effects to create the metallic state, while another hypothesizes that the higher $`\mu `$ allows for stronger electron-electron interaction, and that this interaction causes the metallic state. However, there is still no clear model supported by experimental results to explain this metallic behavior.

So far, the metallic behavior has been observed in 2D electron systems (2DESs) in Si-MOSFETs, 2D hole systems (2DHSs) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures and SiGe quantum wells (QWs), and now in a 2DES in AlAs. To provide an overview, and for further discussion, some of the important parameters of these systems are shown in Table I. AlAs is an interesting material for 2DESs because it combines some of the properties of GaAs with those of Si. Since it is grown in the same molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems as GaAs samples, very clean samples can be fabricated. However, it is similar to Si in that the minima of the AlAs conduction band are at the X-points of the Brillouin Zone. (The minima in Si are near the X-points.) In addition, in AlAs QWs like ours, which are grown on the (100) surface of the GaAs substrate, one can cause the electrons to occupy the conduction band ellipsoids either perpendicular to or parallel to the plane of the 2DES by varying the width of the QW. Our data indicate that in our sample, only one of the in-plane ellipsoids is occupied. By patterning Hall bars along and perpendicular to the direction of the occupied ellipsoid’s major axis, we are able to measure the resistance along these two directions. We observe anisotropy in the measured resistance, and the data along both directions show metallic behavior at high $`n`$ and insulating behavior at low $`n`$.

Our sample was grown by MBE on an undoped GaAs (100) substrate. The 2DES is confined to a 150 Å-wide AlAs QW which is separated from the dopant atoms (Si) by a 300 Å-wide front barrier of Al<sub>0.45</sub>Ga<sub>0.55</sub>As and a rear barrier consisting of 25 periods of a GaAs/AlAs (10.5 Å/8.5 Å) superlattice. On a sample from this wafer, we patterned two Hall bars oriented perpendicular to each other (L-shaped) along the  and  directions. The Hall bars were patterned by standard photolithographic techniques and a wet etch. Ohmic contacts were made by alloying AuGeNi in an N<sub>2</sub> and H<sub>2</sub> atmosphere for 10 minutes. A front gate of 350 Å Au on top of 50 Å Ti was deposited on top of the active regions of the Hall bars to control $`n`$.

Our $`T`$ dependence measurements were performed in a pumped <sup>3</sup>He refrigerator at $`T`$ from 0.28 K to 1.4 K. We measured $`T`$ using a calibrated RuO<sub>2</sub> resistor. We used the standard low-frequency AC lock-in technique with an excitation current of 1 nA to measure the four point resistance of the sample. The data were taken by fixing the front-gate voltage ($`V_g`$), and measuring both the longitudinal ($`R_{xx}`$) and transverse ($`R_{xy}`$) resistances as a function of perpendicular magnetic field ($`B`$). These magnetoresistance measurements were used to determine $`n`$ at that $`V_g`$. Gate leakage was monitored throughout the experiment and it never exceeded 10 pA. The $`T`$ was then raised to 1.4 K and continuously lowered back to the base $`T`$ (0.28 K) over a period of three hours. The densities and $`T`$ dependencies were repeatable at the same gate voltages. The results of $`R_{xx}`$ and $`R_{xy}`$ magnetoresistance measurements at 0.28 K for $`V_g=0`$ are shown in Fig. 1. Note the high quality of the data, with the appearance of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations at a field as low as 0.6 T and the fractional quantum Hall effect at Landau level filling factor $`\nu =2/3`$ as well as at $`\nu =1/3`$ (see Ref. ).

Before presenting the $`T`$-dependence data, we will describe some of the characteristics of our AlAs 2DES. Several observations lead us to believe that in our sample only one in-plane conduction-band ellipsoid is occupied. First, previous cyclotron resonance (CR) measurements on samples from this wafer reveal a CR effective mass $`m_{CR}=0.46m_e`$. This mass is in excellent agreement with the expected CR mass if in-plane ellipsoids are occupied. It is very different from $`m_{CR}=m_t=0.19m_e`$ which would be observed if an ellipsoid perpendicular to the plane were occupied. Second, the data of Fig. 1 show minima in $`R_{xx}`$ and plateaus in $`R_{xy}`$ for both even and odd filling factors, and the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations show no beating. Moreover, the two $`R_{xx}`$ traces from the two perpendicular Hall bars show an anisotropy in $`\mu `$. We conclude from these observations that only one of the two in-plane ellipsoids is occupied: the magnetoresistance data suggest that there is only one occupied subband, while the $`\mu `$ anisotropy indicates that the Fermi surface in the plane of the 2DES can be anisotropic, consistent with a single in-plane ellipsoid being occupied. It is possible that a slight angular deviation from the ideal growth direction could account for the lifting of the expected degeneracy of the in-plane ellipsoids, as a splitting of only a few meV would be sufficient to produce a single occupied subband.

We now compare the characteristics of the 2DES in our sample with those of Si-MOSFETs. First, the conduction band ellipsoids in bulk Si and AlAs are comparable, with similar values for $`m_l`$ and $`m_t`$. However, in contrast to our sample, the Si-MOSFET 2DESs which have been studied so far occupy out-of-plane ellipsoids. As a result, transport in the plane is isotropic with an effective mass $`m_t=0.19m_e`$. The mobilities at base $`T`$ of our sample for the trace shown in Fig. 1 ($`n=2.08\times 10^{11}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>) are 6.1 m<sup>2</sup>/Vs for the high-$`\mu `$ direction and 4.2 m<sup>2</sup>/Vs for the low-$`\mu `$ direction. The highest mobilities we measure, for the highest density ($`n=2.73\times 10^{11}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>), are 7.7 m<sup>2</sup>/Vs and 4.7 m<sup>2</sup>/Vs. These mobilities are comparable to the highest mobilities reported for Si-MOSFET 2DESs (see Table I). Finally, as seen in Fig. 1 and Ref. , our sample exhibits clear fractional quantum Hall effect, an effect rarely seen in Si-MOSFETs.

Figure 2 summarizes the $`T`$ dependence of the zero-$`B`$ resistivity ($`\rho `$) for a range of $`n`$ from $`2.73\times 10^{11}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup> to $`0.59\times 10^{11}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>. The results for both high and low mobility directions are shown. As with other experiments,  the data can be split into three regimes. In the lowest $`n`$ traces, the behavior is insulating throughout the $`T`$ range measured, with $`\rho `$ rising monotonically as $`T`$ is reduced. The highest $`n`$ traces show metallic behavior throughout the $`T`$ range, with $`\rho `$ decreasing monotonically as $`T`$ is reduced. For intermediate $`n`$, $`\rho `$ exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on $`T`$: it initally rises as $`T`$ is lowered, shows a maximum, and then decreases with decreasing $`T`$. These data are very similar qualitatively to the results of previous experiments.

As already mentioned, a theoretical explanation for data like these, with experimental evidence to support it, does not exist. We expect, though, that the Fermi energy ($`E_F`$) might be an important parameter. In our sample, $`E_F`$ at the highest density is 16 K and at the lowest density is 3.6 K. Our $`T`$-range in these measurements (0.28 K to 1.4 K) is only about an order of magnitude smaller than $`E_F`$. Most of the 2D carrier systems investigated so far also have $`E_F`$ comparable to the $`T`$-range over which the experiment is done. This raises the possibility of finite-$`T`$ effects causing the metallic-like behavior. In fact, Henini et al. have fitted to their GaAs 2DHS data an expression \[$`\mu /\mu _o1(T/E_F)^2`$\] describing the temperature dependence of screening and found that the fit was very good. Our data is not fit well by this equation, but we cannot rule out this effect because the exact expression for temperature-dependent screening depends on details of disorder and material parameters.

Another possible model has been put forth by Pudalov. He suggests that the metallic-like data may be fitted by an empirical dependence

$$\rho (T)=\rho _o+\rho _1exp(T_o/T).$$
(1)   
The second term is intended to account for an energy gap caused by a spin-orbit interaction. For $`n`$ where our 2DES exhibits a metallic behavior throughout the measured $`T`$-range (traces a to f of Fig. 2), this equation fits our data well through the whole $`T`$-range. The fits are not shown in Fig. 2 because they are indistinguishable from the data. To show the accuracy of the fits, we present representative Arrhenius plots of ($`\rho \rho _o`$) vs. $`1/T`$ in Fig. 3a. For clarity, only the curves for the high-$`\mu `$ direction data are shown; the curves for the low-$`\mu `$ direction are very similar. Clear exponential behavior is observed for more than a decade of ($`\rho \rho _o`$) for the highest density traces, but as the density is reduced, the range over which exponential dependence is observed reduces to about a factor of 5. In Fig. 3b we show, as a function of $`n`$, the values of $`\rho _o`$, $`\rho _1`$, and $`T_o`$ deduced from fitting Eq. 1 to the data. As expected, $`\rho _o`$ rises monotonically as $`n`$ is reduced. Also, $`\rho _1`$ is seen to rise smoothly and monotonically, which is more evidence that the fits are meaningful. The $`T_o`$ vs. $`n`$ dependence seen in the lower part of Fig. 3b is qualitatively the same as what Hanein et al. observe for their 2DHS data. Both show a dependence that is close to linear, and that extrapolates to $`T_o=0`$ at $`n=0`$. We note that a decreasing $`T_o`$ with $`n`$ is consistent with $`T_o`$ being related to spin-orbit interaction: the spin-splitting energy in 2D carrier systems due to interface inversion asymmetry indeed typically decreases with decreasing 2D density. It is also interesting to compare the dimensionless ratio $`T_o/E_F`$ in our measurements to those of Hanein et al. Since both $`E_F`$ and $`T_o`$ vary approximately linearly with $`n`$ in the range where the behavior is metallic, this ratio is a constant for each experiment. For the data of Hanein et al., $`T_o/E_F0.2`$, while for ours, $`T_o/E_F0.1.`$ Despite a factor of two difference, these ratios are similar enough to suggest that $`T_o`$ and $`E_F`$ may be important physical parameters in all of the systems that show metallic behavior.

Taken together, the results of recent experiments make it very difficult to overlook the anomalous low-$`T`$ behavior in these systems. The similarity of the data and the parameters from various systems, and the inability of any current theory to describe them all, strongly suggest that there is new and interesting physics here. A look at Table I shows the similarities among some relevant parameters. The large values of the dimensionless parameter $`r_s`$ (the interparticle spacing measured in units of the effective Bohr radius) and of $`\mu `$ support the idea that electron-electron interaction plays a role in stabilizing the metallic state. The combination of rather small densities and large effective masses that leads to large $`r_s`$ values, on the other hand, also means small values of $`E_F`$. Ironically, precisely because of these small $`E_F`$ values, it is still questionable if it is meaningful to infer the existence of a zero-$`T`$ metallic state from the available finite-$`T`$ data: phenomena such as temperature dependent screening can indeed lead to a decrease in $`\rho `$ with decreasing $`T`$ at temperatures which are not negligible compared to $`E_F`$.

In conclusion, we present data from a new and different 2DES that shows the same metallic-like behavior and apparent metal-insulator transition recently observed in other 2D carrier systems. The generality of this phenomenon begs theoretical explanation.

We would like to thank Y. Hanein, D. Shahar, D. C. Tsui, and J. Yoon for useful discussions. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation.