Theory for magnetic-field-driven 3D metal-insulator transitions in the quantum limit

Abstract

Metal-insulator transitions driven by magnetic fields have been extensively studied in 2D, but a 3D theory is still lacking. Motivated by recent experiments, we develop a scaling theory for the metal-insulator transitions in the strong-magnetic-field quantum limit of a 3D system. By using a renormalization-group calculation to treat electron-electron interactions, electron-phonon interactions, and disorder on the same footing, we obtain the critical exponent that characterizes the scaling relations of the resistivity to temperature and magnetic field. By comparing the critical exponent with those in a recent experiment [F. Tang et al., Nature (London) 569, 537 (2019)], we conclude that the insulating ground state was not only a charge-density wave driven by electron-phonon interactions but also coexisting with strong electron-electron interactions and backscattering disorder. We also propose a current-scaling experiment for further verification. Our theory will be helpful for exploring the emergent territory of 3D metal-insulator transitions under strong magnetic fields.

7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (6)

• Anderson Transitions
• Fermi-liquid instabilities at magnetic quantum phase transitions
• Metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional electron systems
• Magnetically driven metal-insulator transition in NaOsO3
• Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-low-carrier-density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level
• Quantum transport properties of beta-Bi4I4 near and well beyond the extreme quantum limit

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Topological Lifshitz transition and one-dimensional Weyl mode in HfTe5
• Understanding the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect in generic multi-Weyl semimetals
• Quantum transport properties of beta-Bi4I4 near and well beyond the extreme quantum limit
• Quantum-Hall physics and three dimensions
• Propagation of longitudinal acoustic phonons in ZrTe${}_5$ exposed to a quantizing magnetic field
• Nonlocal optical conductivity of Fermi surface nesting materials
• Engineering a pure Dirac regime in ZrTe${}_5$
• Three-dimensional quantum Griffiths singularity in bulk iron-pnictide superconductors
• Theory of phonon instabilities in Weyl semimetals at high magnetic fields