The transverse magnetoresistance of the two-dimensional chiral metal
Abstract
We consider the two-dimensional chiral metal, which exists at the surface of a layered, three-dimensional sample exhibiting the integer quantum Hall effect. We calculate its magnetoresistance in response to a component of magnetic field perpendicular to the sample surface, in the low temperature, but macroscopic, regime where inelastic scattering may be neglected. The magnetoresistance is positive, following a Drude form with a field scale,
B
0
=
Φ
0
/a
l
el
, given by the transverse field strength at which one quantum of flux,
Φ
0
, passes through a rectangle with sides set by the layer-spacing,
a
, and the elastic mean free path,
l
el
. Experimental measurement of this magnetoresistance may therefore provide a direct determination of the elastic mean free path in the chiral metal.