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Metal-Insulator Transition

We propose a simple model for a classical 2D electron system consisting of interacting electrons with random disorder and temperature. We monitor the fluctuations and noise characteristics of the current as a function of electron density or temperature. The advantage of our model is that a large number of interacting electrons can be conveniently simulated, while a full quantum mechanical model of similar size would be computationally prohibitive. Despite the limitations of this model, we show that this approach captures many of the key experimental observations. Additionally, although our primary focus is to gain insight into the physics near the 2D MIT, our model is also relevant for other classical charge systems undergoing crossovers from glass to liquid states, such as charged colloids interacting with random disorder.

Papers:

  1. Noise at the crossover from Wigner crystal to Wigner glass
    C. Reichhardt and C.J. Olson Reichhardt
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 176405 (2004).
    Online version

  2. Moving Wigner glasses and smectics: Dynamics of disordered Wigner crystals
    C. Reichhardt, C.J. Olson, N. Gronbech-Jensen, and F. Nori
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4354 (2001).
    Online version

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Last Modified: 5/9/05