Possible nematic to smectic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron gas at half-filling

Qian, Q.; Nakamura, J.; Fallahi, S.; Gardner, G. C.; Manfra, M. J.

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01810-y

Title: Possible nematic to smectic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron gas at half-filling

Journal Article · Thu Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01810-y· OSTI ID:1526282

Qian, Q. ^[1]; Nakamura, J. ^[1]; Fallahi, S. ^[1]; Gardner, G. C. ^[1]; Manfra, M. J. ^[1]

Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

Liquid crystalline phases of matter permeate nature and technology, with instances ranging from cell membranes to liquid-crystal displays. Remarkably, electronic liquid-crystal phases can exist in two-dimensional electron systems (2DES) at half Landau-level filling in the quantum Hall regime. Theory has predicted the existence of a liquid-crystal smectic phase that breaks both rotational and translational symmetries. However, previous experiments in 2DES are most consistent with an anisotropic nematic phase breaking only rotational symmetry. Here we report three transport phenomena at half-filling in ultra-low disorder 2DES: a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the sample resistance, dramatic onset of large time-dependent resistance fluctuations, and a sharp feature in the differential resistance suggestive of depinning. These data imply that a sequence of symmetry-breaking phase transitions occurs as temperature is lowered: first a transition from an isotropic liquid to a nematic phase and finally to a liquid-crystal smectic phase.

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Research Organization:: Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0006671

OSTI ID:: 1526282

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 19 works

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Electron–electron interactions and the paired-to-nematic quantum phase transition in the second Landau level Schreiber, K. A.; Samkharadze, N.; Gardner, G. C. Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04879-1	journal	June 2018
Finite-temperature behavior in the second Landau level of the two-dimensional electron gas Shingla, V.; Kleinbaum, E.; Kumar, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 97, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.97.241105	journal	June 2018
Orientation of hole quantum Hall nematic phases in an out-of-plane electric field Croxall, A. F.; Sfigakis, F.; Waldie, J. Physical Review B, Vol. 99, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.99.195420	journal	May 2019
Current Flow in the Bubble and Stripe Phases Friess, B.; Umansky, V.; von Klitzing, K. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.120.137603	journal	March 2018
Unconventional Anisotropic Even-Denominator Fractional Quantum Hall State in a System with Mass Anisotropy Hossain, Md. Shafayat; Ma, Meng K.; Chung, Y. J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 121, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.121.256601	journal	December 2018
Observation of new plasmons in the fractional quantum Hall effect: Interplay of topological and nematic orders Du, Lingjie; Wurstbauer, Ursula; West, Ken W. Science Advances, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav3407	journal	March 2019
Orientation of hole quantum Hall nematic phases in an out-of-plane electric field Croxall, Af; Sfigakis, F.; Waldie, Joanna Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.40003	text	January 2019
Unconventional anisotropic even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state in a system with mass anisotropy Hossain, Md. Shafayat; Ma, Meng K.; Chung, Y. J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1811.07094	text	January 2018
Observation of new plasmons in the fractional quantum Hall effect: interplay of topological and nematic orders Du, Lingjie; Wurstbauer, Ursula; West, Ken W. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1902.02261	text	January 2019

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