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Evidence for a fractionally quantized Hall state with anisotropic longitudinal transport

Nature Physics volume 7, pages 845–848 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

At high magnetic fields, where the Fermi level lies in the N=0 lowest Landau level (LL), a clean two-dimensional electron system (2DES) shows numerous incompressible liquid phases which exhibit the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE; ref. 1). These liquid phases do not break rotational symmetry, exhibiting resistivities which are isotropic in the plane. In contrast, at lower fields, when the Fermi level lies in the N≥2 third and several higher LLs, the 2DES exhibits a distinctly different class of collective states. In particular, near half-filling of these high LLs the 2DES exhibits a strongly anisotropic longitudinal resistance at low temperatures2,3. These ‘stripe’ phases, which do not exhibit the quantized Hall effect, resemble nematic liquid crystals, possessing broken rotational symmetry and orientational order4,5,6,7,8. Here we report a surprising new observation: an electronic configuration in the N=1 LL, the resistivity tensor of which simultaneously exhibits a robust fractionally quantized Hall plateau and a strongly anisotropic longitudinal resistance resembling that of the stripe phases.

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Figure 1: Hall and longitudinal resistances at T≈15 mKversus magnetic field in the N=1 Landau level.
Figure 2: Rx x and Ry y versus temperature at ν=7/3 for θ=0°, 19°, 44° and 76°.
Figure 3: Hall and longitudinal resistances at ν=7/3 for θ=66°.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to C. Nayak and S. Kivelson for useful discussions. This work was supported by Microsoft Project Q. The work at Princeton was partially funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation as well as the National Science Foundation MRSEC Program through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (DMR-0819860).

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Author notes

  1. Jing Xia

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Condensed Matter Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    Jing Xia & J. P. Eisenstein

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    L. N. Pfeiffer & K. W. West

Authors
  1. Jing Xia
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  2. J. P. Eisenstein
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  3. L. N. Pfeiffer
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  4. K. W. West
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Contributions

J.X. and J.P.E. conceived the project. L.N.P. and K.W.W. fabricated the samples. J.X. performed the experiment. J.X. and J.P.E. discussed the data and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jing Xia.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Xia, J., Eisenstein, J., Pfeiffer, L. et al. Evidence for a fractionally quantized Hall state with anisotropic longitudinal transport. Nature Phys 7, 845–848 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2118

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