1999/10/07 by Shahal Ilani, S. Ilani, Amir Yacoby +3 · 119 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Compressibility #Condensed matter physics #Crossover #Homogeneous #Materials science #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Thermodynamics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.3133
published in Physical Review Letters 84(14), 3133-3136 (American Physical Society) · As presented in EP2DS-13, Aug. 1999. (4 pages, 4 figures)
arxiv created 1999/10/07 · openalex publication_date 2000/04/03 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have measured the local electronic compressibility of a two-dimensional hole gas as it crosses the B = 0 metal-insulator transition. In the metallic phase, the compressibility follows the mean-field Hartree-Fock (HF) theory and is found to be spatially homogeneous. In the insulating phase it deviates by more than an order of magnitude from the HF predictions and is spatially inhomogeneous. The crossover density between the two types of behavior agrees quantitatively with the transport critical density, suggesting that the system undergoes a thermodynamic change at the transition.