Nonintrinsic origin of the magnetic-field-induced metal-insulator and electronic phase transitions in graphite

Abstract

A detailed magnetoresistance study of bulk and microflake samples of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite with a thickness of 25 $\mu$m to 23~nm reveals that the usually observed field-induced metal-insulator and electronic phase transitions vanish in thinner samples. The observed suppression is accompanied by orders of magnitude decrease of the magnetoresistance and of the amplitude of the Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillations. The overall behavior is related to the decrease in the quantity of two-dimensional interfaces between crystalline regions of the same and different stacking orders present in graphite samples. Our results indicate that these field-induced transitions are not intrinsic to the ideal graphite structure and, therefore, a relevant portion of the published interpretations should be reconsidered.