Composite fermions in a long-range random magnetic field: Quantum Hall effect versus Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations

Abstract

We study transport in a smooth random magnetic field, with emphasis on composite fermions (CF) near half-filling of the Landau level. When either the amplitude of the magnetic field fluctuations or its mean value $\bar B$ is large enough, the transport is of percolating nature. While at $\bar{B}=0$ the percolation effects enhance the conductivity $\sigma_{xx}$, increasing $\bar B$ (which corresponds to moving away from half-filling for the CF problem) leads to a sharp falloff of $\sigma_{xx}$ and, consequently, to the quantum localization of CFs. We demonstrate that the localization is a crucial factor in the interplay between the Shubnikov-de Haas and quantum Hall oscillations, and point out that the latter are dominant in the CF metal.