Self Duality and a possible Hall-insulator phase near the superconductor-to-insulator transition in two-dimensional indium-oxide films

We combine measurements of the longitudinal (${\rho }_{xx}$) and Hall (${\rho }_{xy}$) resistivities of disordered two dimensional amorphous indium-oxide films to study the magnetic-field tuned superconductor to insulator transition (H-SIT) in the $T\to 0$ limit. At the critical field, $H_c$, the full resistivity tensor is $T$ independent with $\rho_{xx}(H_c) = h/4e^2$and$\rho_{xy}(H_c)=0$ within experimental uncertainty in all films (i.e. these appear to be “universal” values), this is strongly suggestive that there is a particle-vortex self-duality at $H=H_c$. The transition separates the (presumably) superconducting state at $H<H_c$ from a “Hall-insulator” phase in which ${\rho }_{xx}\to \mathrm{\infty }$ as $T\to 0$ while ${\rho }_{xy}$ approaches a non-zero value smaller than its “classical value” $H\mathrm{/}nec$, i.e. $0<{\rho }_{xy}<H\mathrm{/}nec$. A still higher characteristic magnetic field, $H_c^*> H_c$,atwhichtheHallresistanceis$T$ independent and roughly equal to its classical value, ${\rho }_{xy}\approx H\mathrm{/}nec$, marks an additional crossover to a highfield regime (probably to a Fermi-insulator) in which ${\rho }_{xy}>H\mathrm{/}nec$ and possibly diverges as $T\to 0$. We also highlight a profound analogy between the H-SIT and quantum-Hall liquid to insulator transitions (QHIT).