# High-Frequency Hopping conductivity of Disordered 2D-system in the IQHE Regime

## Introduction

If one places a semiconducting heterostructure over a piezoelectric which SAW is being propagated, the SAW undergoes attenuation associated with the interaction of the electrons of heterostructure with the electric field of SAW. This is the basis of the acoustic method pioneered by Wixforth  for the investigation of GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. In the paper  it has been found that in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure in the IQHE regime the acoustically measured conductivity $`\sigma ^{hf}`$ does not coincide with the $`\sigma ^{dc}`$ obtained from the direct-current measurements: $`\sigma ^{dc}`$=0, whereas $`\sigma ^{hf}`$ has a finite value. This difference was explained by means of a conventional model of electrons being localized in the IQHE regime, therefore the conductivity mechanism for a direct current differs from that for an alternative current. For the localized electrons in the hopping conduction regime hf-conductivity can be expressed as a complex value: $`\sigma ^{hf}=\sigma _1^{hf}i\sigma _2^{hf}`$ . Absorption coefficient of SAW, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and the change of SAW velocity- $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$-can be presented in the way:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }=8.68{\displaystyle \frac{K^2}{2}}kA{\displaystyle \frac{(\frac{4\pi \sigma _1}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)}{[1+(\frac{4\pi \sigma _2}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)]^2+[(\frac{4\pi \sigma _1}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)]^2}},`$ (1)   
$$A=8b(k)(\epsilon _1+\epsilon _0)\epsilon _0^2\epsilon _sexp(2k(a+d)),$$

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }V}{V}=\frac{K^2}{2}A\frac{(\frac{4\pi \sigma _2}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)+1}{[1+(\frac{4\pi \sigma _2}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)]^2+[(\frac{4\pi \sigma _1}{\epsilon _sV})t(k)]^2},$$

where $`K^2`$ is the electromechanical coupling coefficient of piezoelectric substrate, $`k`$ and $`V`$ are the SAW wavevector and the velocity respectively, $`a`$ is the vacuum gap width of 2DEG, $`d`$ is the depth of the 2D-layer, $`\epsilon _1`$, $`\epsilon _0`$ and $`\epsilon _s`$ are the dielectric constants of lithium niobate, vacuum and semiconductor respectively, $`b`$ and $`t`$ are complex function of $`a`$, $`d`$, $`\epsilon _1`$, $`\epsilon _0`$ and $`\epsilon _s`$.

The aim of the work is to determine Re$`\sigma ^{hf}`$(H,T) and Im$`\sigma ^{hf}`$(H,T) in IQHE regime from the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ of SAW measurements ($`f`$=30MHz, T=1.5-4.2K, H up to 7T) and to analyze the 2D-electrons localization mechanism.

## The Experimental results and discussion

Fig.1 illustrates the experimental dependencies of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ on H at T=1.5K for the sample 1 ($`n=2.710^{11}cm^2`$). As long as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ are determined by the 2DEG conductivity (Eq.(1)), quantizing of the electro nspectrum in the magnetic field, leading to the SdH oscillations, results in similar peculiarities in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ of fig.1. Fig.2a presents the $`\sigma _1(T)`$ dependencies determined from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ (Fig.1) using Eq.(1) for H=5.5; 2.7 and 1.8T ($`\nu `$=2, 4, 6 respectively), $`\nu `$=nch/eH is the filling factor. Fig.2b shows the $`\sigma _2(T)`$ dependencies derived from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ for H=5.5, 2.7 and 1.8 T. Fig.3 illustrates the dependencies $`\sigma _1`$ and $`\sigma _2`$ on magnetic field near H=5.5T ($`\nu `$=2) at different temperatures. In a number of papers (see f.e.) devoted to the study of magnetoresistance in IQHE regime it was established that in IQHE plateau regions at low T the dominant conductivity mechanism is variable range hopping.

HF-conductivity in this case is determined by the two-site model and is associated with the electronic transition between localized states of ”tight” pairs of impurities $`\sigma _1`$. In this case the relation is valid:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{Re\sigma }{Im\sigma }}={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _1}{\sigma _2}}={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}ln{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{\omega _{ph}}},`$ (2)   
where $`\omega =2\pi f`$ is the frequency of SAW, $`\omega _{ph}`$ is the characteristic phonon frequency of the order of $`10^{12}10^{13}sec^1`$. The calculation using Eq.(2) gives $`\sigma _1/\sigma _2=0.15`$ (f=30 MHz). For all samples it was experimentally found $`\sigma _1/\sigma _2=0.14\pm 0.03`$ at T=1.5K and H in the Hall plateaux middle. This fact allows one to suppose that the mechanism that determines the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/V`$ of SAW interacting with localized electrons is that of the hf hopping conductivity .

For the analysis of the dependencies $`\sigma _1(H,T)`$ and $`\sigma _2(H,T)`$ we supposed it to be determined by two mechanisms: hf-hopping on the localized states of impurities and thermal activation to the upper Landau band. The value of $`\sigma _2`$ is proportional to the number of ”tight” pairs, which is changed with a thermal activation processes ($`\sigma _2=0`$ for delocalized electrons ). So the dependence $`\sigma _2(H,T)`$ reflects a change of number of these pairs.

The dependence $`\sigma _1(H)`$ is similar to behaviour of $`\sigma ^{dc}`$ when it makes SdH-oscillations, but $`\sigma _1>\sigma ^{dc}=0`$. $`\sigma _1(T)`$ can be presented as a sum of two terms: $`\sigma _1=\sigma _1^h+\sigma _1^a`$, where $`\sigma _1^h=0.11\sigma _2^h`$ is hf-conductivity, $`\sigma _1^a=\sigma _0exp(\mathrm{\Delta }E/kT)`$ is the conductivity on upper Landau band due to the electrons activated from the states on Fermi level where the activation energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=\mathrm{}\omega _c/2C/2`$, ($`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ is the cyclotron frequency, $`C`$ is the Landau band width). From the plotted dependence $`ln(\sigma _1\sigma _1^h)`$ on 1/T the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ was found for H=5.5, 2.7, 1.8T. One can see (inset of Fig.2a) that $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is linear function of H with the slope $`0.5\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ what allow to derive the width of Landau band, broadened, probably, by the impurity random potential; the width is appeared to be $`C`$=2meV.

## Acknowledgements

The work was supported by RFFI (N 98-02-18280) and Minnauki (N 97-1043).