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Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations and magneto-intersubband oscillations of magnetoresistance of structures with single HgTe quantum wells with a width of (10-18) nm have been experimentally studied. The spectrum of the conduction band in these structures is split by the spin-orbit interaction. This leads to beats of the SdH oscillations and the appearance of low-frequency magneto-intersubband oscillations. The mutual position of the antinodes of the SdH oscillations and the maxima of the magneto-interband oscillations is unusual -- in low magnetic fields it is directly opposite to the predictions of the theory. Measurements in high magnetic fields, in which the relative amplitude of the SdH oscillations becomes greater than 0.2-0.3, show a change in the relative position of the antinodes of the SdH oscillations and the maxima of low-frequency oscillations. Numerical calculations and additional measurements at different temperatures show that the observed effects are due to oscillations of the Fermi level in the magnetic field., Comment: 7 two-column pages, 10 figures

The magnetic field, temperature dependence and the Hall effect have been measured in order to determine the energy spectrum of the valence band in HgTe quantum wells with the width (20-200)nm. The comparison of hole densities determined from the period Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and the Hall effect shows that states at the top of valence band are double degenerate in teh entry quantum wells width the width range. The cyclotron mass determined from temperature dependence of SdH oscillations increases monotonically from (0.2-0.3) mass of the free electron, with increasing hole density from 2e11 to 6e11 cm^-2. The determined dependence has been compared to theoretical one calculate within the four band kp model. The experimental dependence was found to be strongly inconsistent with this predictions. It has been shown that the inclusion of additional factors (electric field, strain) does not remove the contradiction between experiment and theory. Consequently it is doubtful that the mentioned kp calculations adequately describe the valence band for any width of quantum well., Comment: 7 pages 8 figures

The results of systematic experimental studies of quantum oscillations of resistivity, Hall coefficient and capacitance in GaAs and In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As quantum wells (QWs) with a simple electron spectrum and HgTe QWs with a complicated non-parabolic spectrum and strong spin-orbit interaction are reported. A striking result is the ratio of the amplitudes of the resistance and Hall coefficient oscillations. In GaAs QW with a simple spectrum characterized by negligibly small Zeeman and spin-orbit splitting, the ratio of amplitudes is close to that predicted theoretically. In HgTe QWs, this ratio is very different and behaves differently in QWs with normal and inverted electron spectra. In HgTe WQs with a normal spectrum, it tends to a theoretical value with an increase of the filling factor ($N$), while for HgTe QWs with an inverted spectrum, it differs significantly from the theoretical one for all available $N$. It is assumed that such a difference in the ratio of amplitudes in GaAs and HgTe QWs is due not to the peculiarities of the energy spectrum of HgTe, but to the peculiarities of electron scattering due to spin-orbit interaction with the potential of the scatterers. This assumption is justified by analysis of experimental results obtained for a heterostructure with a In$_{0.2}$Ga$_{0.8}$As QW, which spectrum is very close to the GaAs QW spectrum, but characterizes by much stronger spin-orbit splitting value. It has been found that the positions of the resistance and capacitance oscillations, the difference between the phases of the resistance and Hall coefficient oscillations and its $N$ dependence are close to those observed in GaAs QW. At the same time the ratio of the amplitude of the resistance oscillations to the Hall coefficient oscillations and its $N$ dependence differs very strongly and they are close to that observed in HgTe quantum wells., Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures

A magnetotransport and quantum capacitance of the two-dimensional electron gas in HgTe/Cd$_x$Hg$_{1-x}$Te quantum wells of a width ($20.2-46.0$)~nm are experimentally investigated. It is shown that the first energy subband of spatial quantization is split due to the spin-orbit interaction and the split branches are single-spin, therewith the splitting strength increases with the increase of the quantum well width. The electron effective masses in the branches are close to each other within the actual density range. Magneto-intersubband oscillations (MISO) observed in the structures under study exhibit the growing amplitude with the increasing electron density that contradicts to the expected decrease of wave function overlap for the rectangular quantum well. To interpret the data obtained, we have used a self-consistent approach to calculate the electron energy spectrum and the wave function within framework of the \emph{kP}-model. It has been in particular shown that the MISO amplitude increase results from the increasing overlap of the wave functions due to their shift from the gate electrode with the gate voltage increase known as phenomenon of the negative electron polarizability. The results obtained from the transport experiments are supported by quantum capacitance measurements., Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures

In the present paper we study magneto-intersubband oscillations (MISO) in HgTe/Hg$_{1-x}$Cd$_x$Te single quantum well with "inverted" and "normal" spectra and in conventional In$_{1-x}$Ga$_x$As/In$_{1-y}$Al$_y$As quantum wells with normal band ordering. For all the cases when two branches of the spectrum arise due to spin-orbit splitting, the mutual arrangement of the antinodes of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and the maxima of MISO occurs opposite to that observed in double quantum wells and in wide quantum wells with two subbands occupied and does not agree with the theoretical predictions. A "toy" model is supposed that explain qualitatively this unusual result., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures

The results of experimental studies of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) efect in the (013)-HgTe/Hg$_{1-x}$Cd$_x$Te quantum wells (QWs) of electron type of conductivity both with normal and inverted energy spectrum are reported. Comprehensive analysis of the SdH oscillations measured for the different orientations of magnetic field relative to the quantum well plane and crystallographic exes allows us to investigate the anisotropy of the Zeeman effect. For the QWs with inverted spectrum, it has been shown that the ratio of the spin splitting to the orbital one is strongly dependent not only on the orientation of the magnetic field relative to the QW plane but also on the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field component relative to crystallographic axes laying in the QW plane that implies the strong anisotropy of in-plane g-factor. In the QW with normal spectrum, this ratio strongly depends on the angle between the magnetic field and the normal to the QW plane and reveals a very slight anisotropy in the QW plane. To interpret the data, the Landau levels in the tilted magnetic field are calculated within the framework of four-band \emph{kP} model. It is shown that the experimental results can be quantitatively described only with taking into account the interface inversion asymmetry.

Valence band in narrow HgTe quantum wells contains well-conductive Dirac-like light holes at the $\Gamma$ point and poorly conductive heavy hole subband located in the local valleys. Here we propose and employ two methods to measure the density of states for these heavy holes. The first method uses a gate-recharging technique to measure thermodynamical entropy per particle. As the Fermi level is tuned with gate voltage from light to heavy subband, the entropy increases dramatically, and the value of this increase gives an estimate for the density of states. The second method determines the density of states for heavy holes indirectly from the gate voltage dependence of the period of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations for light holes. The results obtained by both methods are in the reasonable agreement with each other. Our approaches can be applied to measure large effective carrier masses in other two-dimensional gated systems., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

The polarizability of electrons occupying the lowest subband of spatial quantization in CdTe/Cd$_x$Hg$_{1-x}$Te/CdTe quantum wells is calculated. It is shown that polarizability in the quantum well without cadmium is negative, i.e., the displacement of an electron in an electric field applied perpendicularly to the quantum well plane is opposite to the force acting on it. The negative polarizability of 2D electrons can reduce the dielectric constant of quantum wells by up to $(10-15)$ percent., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Spin-orbit splitting of conduction band in HgTe quantum wells was studied experimentally. In order to recognize the role of different mechanisms, we carried out detailed measurements of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in gated structures with a quantum well widths from $8$ to $18$ nm over a wide range of electron density. With increasing electron density controlled by the gate voltage, splitting of the maximum of the Fourier spectrum $f_0$ into two components $f_1$ and $f_2$ and the appearance of the low-frequency component $f_3$ was observed. Analysis of these results shows that the components $f_1$ and $f_2$ give the electron densities $n_1$ and $n_2$ in spin-orbit split subbands while the $f_3$ component results from magneto-intersubband oscillations so that $f_3=f_1 - f_2$. Comparison of these data with results of self-consistent calculations carried out within the framework of four-band \emph{kP}-model shows that a main contribution to spin-orbit splitting comes from the Bychkov-Rashba effect. Contribution of the interface inversion asymmetry to the splitting of the conduction band turns out to be four-to-five times less than that for the valence band in the same structures., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures

The energy spectrum of the conduction band in HgTe/Cd$_x$Hg$_{1-x}$Te quantum wells of a width $d=(4.6-20.2)$ nm has been experimentally studied in a wide range of electron density. For this purpose, the electron density dependence of the effective mass was measured by two methods: by analyzing the temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and by means of the quantum capacitance measurements. There was shown that the effective mass obtained for the structures with $d(7-8)$ nm, the experimental effective mass becomes noticeably less than the calculated ones. This difference increases with the electron density decrease, i.e., with lowering the Fermi energy; the maximal difference between the theory and experiment is achieved at $d = (15-18)$ nm, where the ratio between the calculated and experimental masses reaches the value of two and begins to decrease with a further $d$ increase. We assume that observed behavior of the electron effective mass results from the spectrum renormalization due to electron-electron interaction., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures

The phase of quantum magneto-oscillations is often associated with the Berry phase and is widely used to argue in favor of topological nontriviality of the system (Berry phase $2\pi n+\pi$). Nevertheless, the experimentally determined value may deviate from $2\pi n+\pi$ arbitrarily, therefore more care should be made analyzing the phase of magneto-oscillations to distinguish trivial systems from nontrivial. In this paper we suggest two simple mechanisms dramatically affecting the experimentally observed value of the phase in three-dimensional topological insulators: (i) magnetic field dependence of the chemical potential, and (ii) possible nonuniformity of the system. These mechanisms are not limited to topological insulators and can be extended to other topologically trivial and non-trivial systems., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, in published version the title was changed

The energy spectrum of the valence band in HgTe/Cd$_x$Hg$_{1-x}$Te quantum wells with a width $(8-20)$~nm has been studied experimentally by magnetotransport effects and theoretically in framework $4$-bands $kP$-method. Comparison of the Hall density with the density found from period of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations clearly shows that the degeneracy of states of the top of the valence band is equal to 2 at the hole density $p< 5.5\times 10^{11}$~cm$^{-2}$. Such degeneracy does not agree with the calculations of the spectrum performed within the framework of the $4$-bands $kP$-method for symmetric quantum wells. These calculations show that the top of the valence band consists of four spin-degenerate extremes located at $k\neq 0$ (valleys) which gives the total degeneracy $K=8$. It is shown that taking into account the "mixing of states" at the interfaces leads to the removal of the spin degeneracy that reduces the degeneracy to $K=4$. Accounting for any additional asymmetry, for example, due to the difference in the mixing parameters at the interfaces, the different broadening of the boundaries of the well, etc, leads to reduction of the valleys degeneracy, making $K=2$. It is noteworthy that for our case two-fold degeneracy occurs due to degeneracy of two single-spin valleys. The hole effective mass ($m_h$) determined from analysis of the temperature dependence of the amplitude of the SdH oscillations show that $m_h$ is equal to $(0.25\pm0.02)\,m_0$ and weakly increases with the hole density. Such a value of $m_h$ and its dependence on the hole density are in a good agreement with the calculated effective mass., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures

The Zeeman splitting of the conduction band in the HgTe quantum wells both with normal and inverted spectrum has been studied experimentally in a wide electron density range. The simultaneous analysis of the SdH oscillations in low magnetic fields at different tilt angles and of the shape of the oscillations in moderate magnetic fields gives a possibility to find the ratio of the Zeeman splitting to the orbital one and anisotropy of g-factor. It is shown that the ratios of the Zeeman splitting to the orbital one are close to each other for both types of structures, with a normal and inverted spectrum and they are close enough to the values calculated within kP method. In contrast, the values of g-factor anisotropy in the structures with normal and inverted spectra is strongly different and for both cases differs significantly from the calculated ones. We believe that such disagreement with calculations is a result of the interface inversion asymmetry in the HgTe quantum well, which is not taken into account in the kP calculations., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

Energy spectra both of the conduction and valence bands of the HgTe quantum wells with a width close to the Dirac point were studied experimentally. Simultaneous analysis of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and Hall effect over a wide range of electron and hole densities gives surprising result: the top of the valence band is strongly split by spin-orbit interaction while the splitting of the conduction band is absent, within experimental accuracy. Astonishingly, but such a ratio of the splitting values is observed as for structures with normal spectrum so for structures with inverted one. These results do not consistent with the results of kP calculations, in which the smooth electric filed across the quantum well is only reckoned in. It is shown that taking into account the asymmetry of the quantum well interfaces within a tight-binding method gives reasonable agreement with the experimental data., Comment: 10 pages, 16 figures

The results of experimental study of interference induced magnetoconductivity in narrow HgTe quantum wells of hole-type conductivity with a normal energy spectrum are presented. Interpretation of the data is performed with taking into account the strong spin-orbit splitting of the energy spectrum of the two-dimensional hole subband. It is shown that the phase relaxation time found from the analysis of the shape of magnetoconductivity curves for the relatively low conductivity when the Fermi level lies in the monotonic part of the energy spectrum of the valence band behaves itself analogously to that observed in narrow HgTe quantum wells of electron-type conductivity. It increases in magnitude with the increasing conductivity and decreasing temperature following the $1/T$ law. Such a behavior corresponds to the inelasticity of electron-electron interaction as the main mechanism of the phase relaxation and agrees well with the theoretical predictions. For the higher conductivity, despite the fact that the dephasing time remains inversely proportional to the temperature, it strongly decreases with the increasing conductivity. It is presumed that a nonmonotonic character of the hole energy spectrum could be the reason for such a peculiarity. An additional channel of the inelastic interaction between the carriers in the main and secondary maxima occurs when the Fermi level arrives the secondary maxima in the depth of the valence., Comment: 9 pages including 3 pages of Supplemental Material, 9 figures

The results of an experimental study of the energy spectrum of the valence band in a HgTe quantum well of width d<6.3 nm with normal spectrum in the presence of a strong spin-orbit splitting are reported. The analysis of the temperature, magnetic field and gate voltage dependences of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations allows us to restore the energy spectrum of the two valence band branches, which are split by the spin-orbit interaction. The comparison with the theoretical calculation shows that a six-band kP theory well describes all the experimental data in the vicinity of the top of the valence band., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

The results of experimental study of interference induced magnetoconductivity in narrow quantum well HgTe with the normal energy spectrum are presented. Analysis is performed with taking into account the conductivity anisotropy. It is shown that the fitting parameter \tau_\phi corresponding to the phase relaxation time increases in magnitude with the increasing conductivity (\sigma) and decreasing temperature following the 1/T law. Such a behavior is analogous to that observed in usual two-dimensional systems with simple energy spectrum and corresponds to the inelasticity of electron-electron interaction as the main mechanism of the phase relaxation. However, it drastically differs from that observed in the wide HgTe quantum wells with the inverted spectrum, in which \tau_\phi being obtained by the same way is practically independent of \sigma. It is presumed that a different structure of the electron multicomponent wave function for the inverted and normal quantum wells could be reason for such a discrepancy., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

The results of experimental study of the magnetoresistivity, the Hall and Shubnikov-de Haas effects for the heterostructure with HgTe quantum well of 20.2 nm width are reported. The measurements were performed on the gated samples over the wide range of electron and hole densities including vicinity of a charge neutrality point. Analyzing the data we conclude that the energy spectrum is drastically different from that calculated in framework of $kP$-model. So, the hole effective mass is equal to approximately $0.2 m_0$ and practically independent of the quasimomentum ($k$) up to $k^2\gtrsim 0.7\times 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$, while the theory predicts negative (electron-like) effective mass up to $k^2=6\times 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$. The experimental effective mass near k=0, where the hole energy spectrum is electron-like, is close to $-0.005 m_0$, whereas the theoretical value is about $-0.1 m_0$.

The results of experimental study of the magnetoconductivity of 2D electron gas caused by suppression of the interference quantum correction in HgTe single quantum well heterostructure with the inverted energy spectrum are presented. It is shown that only the antilocalization magnetoconductivity is observed at the relatively high conductivity $\sigma>(20-30)G_0$, where $G_0= e^2/2\pi^2\hbar$. The antilocalization correction demonstrates a crossover from $0.5\ln{(\tau_\phi/\tau)}$ to $1.0\ln{(\tau_\phi/\tau)}$ behavior with the increasing conductivity or decreasing temperature (here $\tau_\phi$ and $\tau$ are the phase relaxation and transport relaxation times, respectively). It is interpreted as a result of crossover to the regime when the two chiral branches of the electron energy spectrum contribute to the weak antilocalization independently. At lower conductivity $\sigma<(20-30)G_0$, the magnetoconductivity behaves itself analogously to that in usual 2D systems with the fast spin relaxation: being negative in low magnetic field it becomes positive in higher one. We have found that the temperature dependences of the fitting parameter $\tau_\phi$ corresponding to the phase relaxation time demonstrate reasonable behavior, close to 1/T, over the whole conductivity range from $5G_0$ up to $130G_0$. However, the $\tau_\phi$ value remains practically independent of the conductivity in distinction to the conventional 2D systems with the simple energy spectrum, in which $\tau_\phi$ is enhanced with the conductivity., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures

The electron-electron interaction quantum correction to the conductivity of the gated single quantum well InP/In$_{0.53}$Ga$_{0.47}$As heterostructures is investigated experimentally. The analysis of the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity tensor allows us to obtain reliably the diffusion part of the interaction correction for different values of spin relaxation rate, $1/\tau_s$. The surprising result is that the spin relaxation processes do not suppress the interaction correction in the triplet channel and, thus, do not enhance the correction in magnitude contrary to theoretical expectations even in the case of relatively fast spin relaxation, $1/T\tau_s\simeq (20-25)\gg 1$., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The electron-electron interaction quantum correction to the conductivity of the gated double well Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs structures is investigated experimentally. The analysis of the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity tensor allows us to obtain reliably the diffusion part of the interaction correction for the regimes when the structure is balanced and when only one quantum well is occupied. The surprising result is that the interaction correction does not reveal resonant behavior; it is practically the same for both regimes., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The nonohmic conductivity of 2D hole gas (2DHG) in single $GaAsIn_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}AsGaAs$ quantum well structures within the temperature range of 1.4 - 4.2K, the carrier's densities $p=(1.5-8)\cdot10^{15}m^{-2}$ and a wide range of conductivities $(10^{-4}-100)G_0$ ($G_0=e^2/\pi\,h$) was investigated. It was shown that at conductivity $\sigma>G_0$ the energy relaxation rate $P(T_h,T_L)$ is well described by the conventional theory (P.J. Price J. Appl. Phys. 53, 6863 (1982)), which takes into account scattering on acoustic phonons with both piezoelectric and deformational potential coupling to holes. At the conductivity range $0.01G_0<\sigma

We investigate the gate voltage dependence of capacitance of a system gate - 2D electron gas (C-Vg). The abrupt drop of capacitance at decreasing concentration was found. The possible reasons of this drop, namely inhomogeneity of electron density distribution and serial resistance of 2D electron gas are discussed. Simultaneous analysis of gate voltage dependences of capacitance and resistance has shown that in heavily doped 2D systems the main role in the drop of capacitance at decreasing concentration plays the resistance of 2D gas. It is found that the investigated systems remains homogeneous down to the low temperature conductivity about (10^-2-10^-3)e^2/h., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The interference quantum correction to the conductivity in the gated double quantum well Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs/Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As structures is studied experimentally. The consistent analysis of the interference induced positive magnetoconductivity allows us to find the interwell transition time $\tau_{12}$ and the electron dephasing time $\tau_\phi$. It has been obtained that $\tau_{12}^{-1}$ resonantly depends on the difference between the electron densities in the wells as predicted theoretically. The dephasing times have been determined under the conditions when one and both quantum wells are occupied. The surprising result is that the $\tau_\phi$ value in the one well does not depend on the occupation of the other one., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

The nonlinear behavior of the Hall resistivity at low magnetic fields in single quantum well GaAs/In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs heterostructures with degenerated electron gas is studied. It has been found that this anomaly is accompanied by the weaker temperature dependence of the conductivity as compared with that predicted by the first-order theory of the quantum corrections to the conductivity. We show that both effects in strongly disordered systems stem from the second order quantum correction caused by the effect of weak localization on the interaction correction and vice versa. This correction contributes mainly to the diagonal component of the conductivity tensor, it depends on the magnetic field like the weak localization correction and on the temperature like the interaction contribution., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We study the electron-electron interaction contribution to the conductivity of two-dimensional In$_{0.2}$Ga$_{0.8}$As electron systems in the diffusion regime over the wide conductivity range, $\sigma\simeq(1-150) G_0$, where $G_0=e^2/(2\pi^2\hbar)$. We show that the data are well described within the framework of the one-loop approximation of the renormalization group (RG) theory when the conductivity is relatively high, $\sigma \gtrsim 15 G_0$. At lower conductivity, the experimental results are found to be in drastic disagreement with the predictions of this theory. The theory predicts much stronger renormalization of the Landau's Fermi liquid amplitude, which controls the interaction in the triplet channel, than that observed experimentally. A further contradiction is that the experimental value of the interaction contribution does not practically depend on the magnetic field, whereas the RG theory forecasts its strong decrease due to decreasing diagonal component of the conductivity tensor in the growing magnetic field., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures

We report experimental observations of a novel magnetoresistance (MR) behavior of two-dimensional electron systems in perpendicular magnetic field in the ballistic regime, for k_BT\tau/\hbar>1. The MR grows with field and exhibits a maximum at fields B>1/\mu, where \mu is the electron mobility. As temperature increases the magnitude of the maximum grows and its position moves to higher fields. This effect is universal: it is observed in various Si- and GaAs- based two-dimensional electron systems. We compared our data with recent theory based on the Kohn anomaly modification in magnetic field, and found qualitative similarities and discrepancies., Comment: 4 pages 3 figures

Results of experimental study of the weak localization phenomenon in 2D system with artificial inhomogeneity of potential relief are presented. It is shown that the shape of the magnetoconductivity curve is determined by the statistics of closed paths. The area distribution function of closed paths has been obtained using the Fourier transformation of the magnetoconductivity curves taken at different temperatures. The experimental results are found in a qualitative agreement with the results of computer simulation., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures

The diffusion contribution of the hole-hole interaction to the conductivity is analyzed in gated GaAs/In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs heterostructures. We show that the change of the interaction correction to the conductivity with the decreasing Drude conductivity results both from the compensation of the singlet and triplet channels and from the arising prefactor $\alpha_i<1$ in the conventional expression for the interaction correction., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

The temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity of the heterostructures with asymmetric In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As quantum well are studied. It is shown that the metallic-like temperature dependence of the conductivity observed in the structures investigated is quantitatively understandable within the whole temperature range, $T=0.4-20$ K. It is caused by the interference quantum correction at fast spin relaxation for 0.4 K$ < T < 1.5$ K. At higher temperatures, 1.5 K$4-6$ K, the metallic-like behavior is determined by the phonon scattering., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity in heavily doped, strongly disordered two-dimensional quantum well structures GaAs/In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs are investigated within wide conductivity and temperature ranges. Role of the interference in the electron transport is studied in the regimes when the phase breaking length $L_\phi$ crosses over the localization length $\xi\sim l\exp{(\pi k_Fl/2)}$ with lowering temperature, where $k_F$ and $l$ are the Fermi quasimomentum and mean free path, respectively. It has been shown that all the experimental data can be understood within framework of simple model of the conductivity over delocalized states. This model differs from the conventional model of the weak localization developed for $k_Fl\gg 1$ and $L_\phi\ll\xi$ by one point: the value of the quantum interference contribution to the conductivity is restricted not only by the phase breaking length $L_\phi$ but by the localization length $\xi$ as well. We show that just the quantity $(\tau_\phi^\ast)^{-1}=\tau_\phi^{-1}+\tau_\xi^{-1}$ rather than $\tau_\phi^{-1}$, where $\tau_\phi\propto T^{-1}$ is the dephasing time and $\tau_\xi\sim\tau\exp(\pi k_F l)$, is responsible for the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity over the wide range of temperature and disorder strength down to the conductivity of order $10^{-2} e^2/h$., Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures

Results of numerical simulation of the weak localization in two-dimensional systems in wide range of magnetic filed are presented. Three cases are analyzed: (i) the isotropic scattering and randomly distributed scatterers; (ii) the anisotropic scattering and randomly distributed scatterers; (iii) the isotropic scattering and the correlated distribution of the scatterers. It is shown that the behavior of the conductivity beyond the diffusion regime strongly depends on the scattering anisotropy and correlation in the scatterer distribution., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

The results of an experimental study of interaction quantum correction to the conductivity of two-dimensional electron gas in A$_3$B$_5$ semiconductor quantum well heterostructures are presented for a wide range of $T\tau$-parameter ($T\tau\simeq 0.03-0.8$), where $\tau$ is the transport relaxation time. A comprehensive analysis of the magnetic field and temperature dependences of the resistivity and the conductivity tensor components allows us to separate the ballistic and diffusion parts of the correction. It is shown that the ballistic part renormalizes in the main the electron mobility, whereas the diffusion part contributes to the diagonal and does not to the off-diagonal component of the conductivity tensor. We have experimentally found the values of the Fermi-liquid parameters describing the electron-electron contribution to the transport coefficients, which are found in a good agreement with the theoretical results., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures

The interaction correction to the conductivity of 2D hole gas in strained GaAs/In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs quantum well structures was studied. It is shown that the Zeeman splitting, spin relaxation and ballistic contribution should be taking into account for reliable determination of the Fermi-liquid constant $F_0^\sigma$. The proper consideration of these effects allows us to describe both th temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity and find the value of $F_0^\sigma$., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

Low-field magnetoresistance in p-type strained quantum wells is studied. It is shown that the Rashba mechanism leads to the cubic in quasimomentum spin-orbit splitting of the hole energy spectrum and the antilocalization behavior of low-field magnetoresistance is well described by the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka expression., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the negative magnetoresistance (MR) of a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in a weak transverse magnetic field $B$. The analysis is carried out in a wide range of zero-$B$ conductances $g$ (measured in units of $e^2/h$), including the range of intermediate conductances, $g\sim 1$. Interpretation of the experimental results obtained for a 2D electron gas in GaAs/In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs single quantum well structures is based on the theory which takes into account terms of higher orders in $1/g$, stemming from both the interference contribution and the mutual effect of weak localization (WL) and Coulomb interaction. We demonstrate that at intermediate conductances the negative MR is described by the standard WL "digamma-functions" expression, but with a reduced prefactor $\alpha$. We also show that at not very high $g$ the second-loop corrections dominate over the contribution of the interaction in the Cooper channel, and therefore appear to be the main source of the lowering of the prefactor, $\alpha\simeq 1-2/\pi g$. We further analyze the regime of a "weak insulator", when the zero-$B$ conductance is low $g(B=0)<1$ due to the localization at low $T$, whereas the Drude conductance is high, $g_0>>1.$ In this regime, while the MR still can be fitted by the digamma-functions formula, the experimentally obtained value of the dephasing rate has nothing to do with the true one. The corresponding fitting parameter in the low-$T$ limit is determined by the localization length and may therefore saturate at $T\to 0$, even though the true dephasing rate vanishes., Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures

We show that the study of conductivity nonlinearity gives a possibility to determine the condition when the diffusion conductivity changes to the hopping one with increasing disorder. It is experimentally shown that the conductivity of single quantum well GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures behaves like diffusive one down to value of order $10^{-2}e^2/h$., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

Weak antilocalization is studied in an InGaAs quantum well. Anomalous magnetoresistance is measured and described theoretically in fields perpendicular, tilted and parallel to the quantum well plane. Spin and phase relaxation times are found as functions of temperature and parallel field. It is demonstrated that spin dephasing is due to the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. The values of electron spin splittings and spin relaxation times are found in the wide range of 2D density. Application of in-plane field is shown to destroy weak antilocalization due to competition of Zeeman and microroughness effects. Their relative contributions are separated, and the values of the in-plane electron g-factor and characteristic size of interface imperfections are found., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures

Low-field magnetoconductivity caused by the quantum interference is studied in the gated 2D quantum well structures with the composition gradient. It is shown that the Dresselhaus mechanism well describes an antilocalization minimum on the conductivity-magnetic field curve., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in International Journal of Nanoscience

The interference induced transverse negative magnetoresistance of GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum well heterostructures has been studied in the presence of strong in-plane magnetic field. It is shown that effect of in-plane magnetic field is determined by the interface roughness and strongly depends on the relationship between mean free path, phase breaking length and roughness correlation length. Analysis of the experimental results allows us to estimate parameters of short- and long-range correlated roughness which have been found in a good agreement with atomic force microscopy data obtained for just the same samples., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, REVTeX 4

The contribution of the electron-electron interaction to conductivity is analyzed step by step in gated GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with different starting disorder. We demonstrate that the diffusion theory works down to $k_F l\simeq 1.5-2$, where $k_F$ is the Fermi quasimomentum, $l$ is the mean free paths. It is shown that the e-e interaction gives smaller contribution to the conductivity than the interference independent of the starting disorder and its role rapidly decreases with $k_Fl$ decrease., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

Results of detailed investigations of the conductivity and Hall effect in gated single quantum well GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with two-dimensional electron gas are presented. A successive analysis of the data has shown that the conductivity is diffusive for $k_F l=25-2$ and behaves like diffusive one for $k_F l=2-0.5$ down to the temperature T=0.4 K. It has been therewith found that the quantum corrections are not small at low temperature when $k_F l\simeq 1$. They are close in magnitude to the Drude conductivity so that the conductivity $\sigma$ becomes significantly less than $e^{2}/h$ (the minimal $\sigma$ value achieved in our experiment is about $3\times 10^{-8}\Omega^{-1}$ at $k_Fl\simeq 0.5$ and $T=0.46$ K). We conclude that the temperature and magnetic field dependences of conductivity in whole $k_Fl$ range are due to changes of quantum corrections., Comment: RevTex 4.0, 10 figures, 7 two-column pages

The temperature and gate voltage dependences of the phase breaking time are studied experimentally in GaAs/InGaAs heterostructures with single quantum well. It is shown that appearance of states at the Fermi energy in the doped layers leads to a significant decrease of the phase breaking time of the carriers in quantum well and to saturation of the phase breaking time at low temperature., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures

A weak-localization effect has been studied in macroscopically inhomogeneous 2D system. It is shown, that although the real phase breaking length tends to infinity when the temperature tends to zero, such a system can reveal a saturated behavior of the temperature dependence of that parameter, which is obtained from the standard analysis of the negative magnetoresistance and usually identified by experimentalists with the phase braking length., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The quantum correction to the conductivity have been studied in two types of 2D heterostructures: with doped quantum well and doped barriers. The consistent analysis shows that in the structures where electrons occupy the states in quantum well only, all the temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the components of resistivity tensor are well described by the theories of quantum corrections. The contribution of electron-electron interaction to the conductivity have been determined reliably in the structures with different electron density. A possible reason of large scatter in experimental data concerning the contribution of electron-electron interaction, obtained in previous papers, and the role of the carriers, occupied the states of the doped layers, is discussed., Comment: 10 pages with 9 figures

The weak localization correction to the conductivity in coupled double layer structures is studied both experimentally and theoretically. Statistics of closed paths has been obtained from the analysis of magnetic field and temperature dependencies of negative magnetoresistance for magnetic field perpendicular and parallel to the structure plane. The comparison of experimental data with results of computer simulation of carrier motion over two 2D layers with scattering shows that inter-layers transitions play decisive role in the weak localization., Comment: 5 PRB pages with 5 eps-figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.B

It is shown that a new kind of information can be extracted from the Fourier transform of negative magnetoresistance in 2D semiconductor structures. The procedure proposed provides the information on the area distribution function of closed paths and on the area dependence of the average length of closed paths. Based on this line of attack the method of analysis of the negative magnetoresistance is suggested. The method has been used to process the experimental data on negative magnetoresistance in 2D structures with different relations between the momentum and phase relaxation times. It is demonstrated this fact leads to distinction in the area dependence of the average length of closed paths., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys.Rev.B

Statistics of closed paths in two-dimensional (2D) systems, which just determines the interference quantum correction to conductivity and anomalous magnetoconductance, has been studied by computer simulation of a particle motion over the plane with randomly distributed scatterers. Both ballistic and diffusion regimes have been considered. The results of simulation have been analyzed in the framework of diffusion approximation. They are used for calculation of the magnetic field dependence of magnetoconductance in the model 2D system. It is shown that the anomalous magnetoconductance can be in principle described by the well known expression, obtained in the diffusion approximation, but with the prefactor less than unity and phase breaking length which differs from true value., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, to be published in Phys.Rev.B

Statistics of closed paths in two-dimensional systems, which just determines the interference quantum correction to conductivity and anomalous magnetoconductance, has been studied by computer simulation of a particle motion over the plane with randomly distributed scatters. Both ballistic and diffusion regimes have been considered. The results of simulation have been analyzed in the framework of diffusion approximation. They are used for calculation of the magnetic field dependence of magnetoconductance in the model 2D system. It is shown that the anomalous magnetoconductance can be in principle described by the well known expression, obtained in the diffusion approximation, but with the prefactor less than unity and phase breaking which differs from true value., Comment: This paper has been significantly modified and placed in cond-mat/9912430