Reorientation of the stripe Phase of 2D Electrons by a Minute Density Modulation

Abstract

Interacting two-dimensional electrons confined in a GaAs quantum well exhibit isotropic transport when the Fermi level resides in the first excited ($N=1$) Landau level. Adding an in-plane magnetic field ($B_{||}$) typically leads to an anisotropic, stripe-like (nematic) phase of electrons with the stripes oriented perpendicular to the $B_{||}$ direction. Our experimental data reveal how a periodic density modulation, induced by a surface strain grating from strips of negative electron-beam resist, competes against the $B_{||}$-induced orientational order of the stripe phase. Even a minute ($<0.25\%$) density modulation is sufficient to reorient the stripes along the direction of the surface grating.

Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (7)

• Electronic liquid crystal state in the high-temperature superconductor YBCO(6.45)
• Formation of a Nematic Fluid at High Fields in Sr3Ru2O7
• Tilt-Induced Anisotropic to Isotropic Phase Transition at $\nu =5/2$
• Observation of pinning mode of stripe phases of 2D systems in high Landau levels
• Pinning mode resonances of 2D electron stripe phases: Effect of in-plane magnetic field
• Ballistic transport of (001) GaAs 2D holes through a strain-induced lateral superlattice
• Impact of the modulation doping layer on the ν=5/2 anisotropy

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Possible nematic to smectic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron gas at half-filling
• Bloch Ferromagnetism of Composite Fermions
• Precise Experimental Test of the Luttinger Theorem and Particle-Hole Symmetry for a Strongly Correlated Fermionic System
• Orientation of hole quantum Hall nematic phases in an out-of-plane electric field