Competing correlated states around the zero field Wigner crystallization transition of electrons in two-dimensions

Abstract

The competition between kinetic energy and Coulomb interactions in electronic systems can lead to complex many-body ground states with competing superconducting, charge density wave, and magnetic orders. Here we study the low temperature phases of a strongly interacting zinc-oxide-based high mobility two dimensional electron system that displays a tunable metal-insulator transition. Through a comprehensive analysis of the dependence of electronic transport on temperature, carrier density, in-plane and perpendicular magnetic fields, and voltage bias, we provide evidence for the existence of competing correlated metallic and insulating states with varying degrees of spin polarization. Our system features an unprecedented level of agreement with the state-of-the-art Quantum Monte Carlo phase diagram of the ideal jellium model, including a Wigner crystallization transition at a value of the interaction parameter $r_s\sim 30$ and the absence of a pure Stoner transition. In-plane field dependence of transport reveals a new low temperature state with partial spin polarization separating the spin unpolarized metal and the Wigner crystal, which we examine against possible theoretical scenarios such as an anti-ferromagnetic crystal, Coulomb induced micro-emulsions, and disorder driven puddle formation.

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• Metallic behavior and related phenomena in two dimensions
• Correlation energy and spin polarization in the 2D electron gas
• Metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional electron systems
• Interaction corrections at intermediate temperatures: I. Longitudinal conductivity and kinetic equation
• Electric field scaling at a B=0 metal-insulator transition in two dimensions
• Exact Quantization of Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall State at $\nu$=5/2 Landau Level Filling Factor
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Cited by in corpus (40)

• Direct observation of a magnetic field-induced Wigner crystal
• Charge-transfer Contact to a High-Mobility Monolayer Semiconductor
• Anomalous Hall Crystals in Rhombohedral Multilayer Graphene II: General Mechanism and a Minimal Model
• Anisotropic, two-dimensional, disordered Wigner solid
• Robust Interlayer-Coherent Quantum Hall States in Twisted Bilayer Graphene
• Ground state phases of the two-dimension electron gas with a unified variational approach
• Interstitial-induced ferromagnetism in a two-dimensional Wigner crystal
• Observation of an electronic microemulsion phase emerging from a quantum crystal-to-liquid transition
• Electronic transport, metal-insulator transition, and Wigner crystallization in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers
• Density-tuned effective metal-insulator transitions in 2D semiconductor layers: Anderson localization or Wigner crystallization
• Kondo effect in electrostatically defined ZnO quantum dots
• Phonons in Electron Crystals with Berry Curvature
• Quantum Monte Carlo study of the phase diagram of the two-dimensional uniform electron liquid
• Spin independence of the strongly enhanced effective mass in ultra-clean SiGe/Si/SiGe two-dimensional electron system
• Upper bound on the window of density occupied by microemulsion phases in two-dimensional electron systems
• Signatures of correlated defects in an ultra-clean Wigner crystal in the extreme quantum limit
• Collective depinning and sliding of a quantum Wigner solid in a 2D electron system
• Local noise spectroscopy of Wigner crystals in two-dimensional materials
• Collective Dynamics and Defect Generation for Wigner Crystal Ratchets
• Noise and Thermal Depinning of Wigner Crystals
• Wigner crystallization at large fine structure constant
• Chiral Wigner crystal phases induced by Berry curvature
• Ferromagnetic semimetal and charge-density wave phases of interacting electrons in a honeycomb moiré potential
• Melting, Reentrant Ordering and Peak Effect for Wigner Crystals with Quenched and Thermal Disorder
• Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2
• Thermal melting of a quantum electron solid in the presence of strong disorder: Anderson versus Wigner
• Stabilization of a two-dimensional quantum electron solid in perpendicular magnetic fields
• Thermal Activation Signatures of the Anderson Insulator and the Wigner Solid forming near $\nu =1$
• Critical gate distance for Wigner crystallization in the two-dimensional electron gas
• Electronic Crystal Phases in the Presence of Non-Uniform Berry Curvature and Tunable Berry Flux: The ${\lambda }_N$-Jellium model
• Negative electronic compressibility in charge islands in twisted bilayer graphene
• Diffusion-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of CuCrO${}_2$ thin films
• Defect liquids in a weakly imbalanced bilayer Wigner Crystal
• Exchange Interactions of a Wigner Crystal in a Magnetic Field and Berry Curvature: Multi-Particle Tunneling through Complex Trajectories
• Magnetic Field Effects and Transverse Ratchets in Charge Lattices Coupled to Asymmetric Substrates
• Inequivalence of the low-density insulating state and quantum Hall insulating states in a strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system
• Quantum Wigner solid in two-dimensional electron systems in semiconductors
• Universal transport at Lifshitz metal-insulator transitions in two dimensions
• Disorder-induced strong-field strong-localization in 2D systems
• Quantum melting a Wigner crystal into Hall liquids