Thermal Activation Signatures of the Anderson Insulator and the Wigner Solid forming near $\nu =1$

Abstract

When interactions overcome disorder, integer quantum Hall plateaus support topological phases with different bulk insulators. In the center of the $\nu =1$ plateau the bulk is an Anderson-type insulator, while in the flanks of the plateau the bulk is the integer quantum Hall Wigner solid. We find that the activation energy along the $\nu =1$ plateau exhibits a very dramatic non-monotonic dependence on the magnetic field, a dependence that is strongly correlated with the stability regions of the two phases. Furthermore, the activation energy has an unexpected minimum at the boundary between the Anderson insulator and the Wigner solid. Our findings constrain the theory of the integer quantum Hall Wigner solid, determine its thermodynamic properties, and reveal novel behavior at the boundary between the Anderson insulator and the Wigner solid.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Integer Quantum Hall Effect: Disorder, temperature, floating, and plateau width
• Density Dependence of the Phases of the $\nu =1$ Integer Quantum Hall Plateau in Low Disorder Electron Gases
• Nonlinear transport of Wigner solid phase surrounding the two-flux composite fermion liquid
• Inequivalence of the low-density insulating state and quantum Hall insulating states in a strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system