Possible persistence of the metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional systems at finite temperatures

Abstract

For the immediate vicinity of the metal-insulator transition (MIT), data on the dependence of the resistivity rho on the charge carrier concentration n from an Si MOSFET experiment by Kravchenko et al. and from an AlAs quantum well study by Papadakis and Shayegan are reanalyzed. In both cases, the rho(T=const.,n) curves for various values of the temperature T seem to exhibit an offset concerning n, where the related resistivity is close to h/e^2. This offset may result from a peculiarity in rho(T=const.,n) indicating the MIT to be present also at finite T. More detailed experiments are imperative.