Magnetoresistance in a soft billiard: giant peak near the percolation threshold

Michel Dyakonov, Remi Jullien

Published 2006-05-30Version 1

By numerical simulation, we study the classical magnetoresistance of two-dimensional electrons in the presence of weak short range scattering. A critical magnetic field defines the percolation threshold, above which the longitudinal resistance vanishes. Unexpectedely, just below this threshold we find a shrp narrow peak, where the resistance may increase 15 times compared to its zero-field value. By considering the complex topology of the effective potential landscape for the center of the cyclotron circle, we show that this phenomenon is related to infinite equipotential lines, which exists only in a narrow magnetic field interval below the percolation threshold