We report the observation of a parallel magnetic field induced metal-insulator transition (MIT) in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) for which spin and localization physics most likely play no major role. The high-mobility metallic phase at low field is consistent with the established Fermi liquid transport theory including phonon scattering, whereas the insulating phase at higher field shows a large negative temperature dependence at resistances much smaller than the quantum of resistance, h/e2. We argue that this observation is a direct manifestation of a quantum-classical crossover arising predominantly from the magneto-orbital coupling between the finite width of the 2DEG and the in-plane magnetic field.
@article{arxiv.1103.3496,
title = {Quantum-Classical Crossover and Apparent Metal-Insulator Transition in a Weakly Interacting 2D Fermi Liquid},
author = {Xiaoqing Zhou and B. Schmidt and C. Proust and G. Gervais and L. N. Pfeiffer and K. W. West and S. Das Sarma},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.3496},
year = {2015}
}