Tunable insulator-quantum Hall transition in a weakly interacting two-dimensional electron system

We have performed low-temperature measurements on a gated two-dimensional electron system in which electron–electron (e-e) interactions are insignificant. At low magnetic fields, disorder-driven movement of the crossing of longitudinal and Hall resistivities (ρ(xx) and ρ(xy)) can be observed. Interestingly, by applying different gate voltages, we demonstrate that such a crossing at ρ(xx) ~ ρ(xy) can occur at a magnetic field higher, lower, or equal to the temperature-independent point in ρ(xx) which corresponds to the direct insulator-quantum Hall transition. We explicitly show that ρ(xx) ~ ρ(xy) occurs at the inverse of the classical Drude mobility 1/μ(D) rather than the crossing field corresponding to the insulator-quantum Hall transition. Moreover, we show that the background magnetoresistance can affect the transport properties of our device significantly. Thus, we suggest that great care must be taken when calculating the renormalized mobility caused by e-e interactions.