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Does spin-orbit coupling play a role in metal-nonmetal transition in two-dimensional systems?

Guang-Hong Chen, M. E. Raikh, Yong-Shi Wu

cond-mat.mes-hallarXiv:cond-mat/9904451

Abstract

We propose an experiment, which would allow to pinpoint the role of spin-orbit coupling in the metal-nonmetal transition observed in a number of two-dimensional systems at low densities. Namely, we demonstrate that in a parallel magnetic field the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling and the Zeeman splitting leads to a characteristic anisotropy of resistivity with respect to the direction of the in-plane magnetic field. Though our analytic calculation is done in the deeply insulating regime, the anisotropy is expected to persist far beyond that regime.

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