Colossal Magnetoresistance in an Ultraclean Weakly Interacting 2D Fermi Liquid

Xiaoqing Zhou, B. A. Piot, M. Bonin, L. W. Engel, S. Das Sarma, G. Gervais, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West

Abstract

We report the observation of a new phenomenon of colossal magnetoresistance in a 40 nm wide GaAs quantum well in the presence of an external magnetic field applied parallel to the high-mobility 2D electron layer. In a strong magnetic field, the magnetoresistance is observed to increase by a factor of $\ensuremath{\sim}300$ from 0 to 45 T without the system undergoing any metal-insulator transition. We discuss how this colossal magnetoresistance effect cannot be attributed to the spin degree of freedom or localization physics, but most likely emanates from strong magneto-orbital coupling between the two-dimensional electron gas and the magnetic field. Our observation is consistent with a field-induced 2D-to-3D transition in the confined electronic system.

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• Physical Review Letters - View
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