Quantum Hall Plateau Transitions in Disordered Superconductors

V. Kagalovsky; B. Horovitz; Y. Avishai; J. T. Chalker

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.3516

Quantum Hall Plateau Transitions in Disordered Superconductors

V. Kagalovsky, B. Horovitz, Y. Avishai, and J. T. Chalker

Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3516 – Published 26 April 1999

Abstract

We study a delocalization transition for noninteracting quasiparticles moving in two dimensions, which belongs to a new symmetry class. This symmetry class can be realized in a dirty, gapless superconductor in which time-reversal symmetry for orbital motion is broken, but spin-rotation symmetry is intact. We find a direct transition between two insulating phases with quantized Hall conductances of zero and two for the conserved quasiparticles. The energy of the quasiparticles acts as a relevant symmetry-breaking field at the critical point, which splits the direct transition into two conventional plateau transitions.

Received 24 November 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.3516

Authors & Affiliations

V. Kagalovsky^1,2, B. Horovitz¹, Y. Avishai¹, and J. T. Chalker³

¹Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
²The Technological College of Beer-Sheva, School of Engineering, Beer-Sheva 84100, Israel
³Theoretical Physics, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom