The universal conductance fluctuations of quasi-two-dimensional systems are analyzed with experimental considerations in mind. The traditional statistical metrics of these fluctuations (such as variance) are shown to have large statistical errors in such systems. An alternative characteristic is identified, the inflection point of the correlation function in magnetic field, which is shown to be significantly more useful as an experimental metric and to give a more robust measure of phase coherence.

• Received 18 June 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.205413