Magnetoconductivity of Insulating Silicon Inversion Layers

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The normalized in-plane magnetoconductivity of the dilute strongly interacting system of electrons in silicon MOSFET's scales with B/T for low densities in the insulating phase. Pronounced deviations occur at higher metallic-like densities, where a new energy scale kB Δ emerges which is not associated with either magnetic field or thermal effects. B/T scaling of the magnetoconductivity breaks down at the density n₀ where the energy scale kB Δ vanishes, near or at the critical density nc for the apparent metal-insulator transition. The different behavior of the magnetoconductivity at low and high densities suggests the existence of two distinct phases.