Reentrant insulating phase in Si inversion layers in low magnetic fields

We have studied the transport properties of an insulating phase confined between metallic states with integer-quantized Hall resistance in a dilute two-dimensional electron system in high-mobility Si metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors at temperatures below 0.5 K and at low magnetic fields H5 T. The longitudinal resistance was found to be thermally activated; the activation energy reaches its maximum value of {~}0.5 K at half-integer filling factors {ν}=1.5 and 2.5, diminishes near {ν}=1 and 2, and vanishes at a critical carrier concentration {}10¹¹ cm^-2. Current-voltage characteristics show a sharp threshold at Eₜ{}2-100 mV/cm. This threshold field decreases near filling factors {ν}=1 and 2, and vanishes near the same critical electron concentration. We attribute this phase to the pinned electron solid.