Spontaneous Interlayer Charge Transfer near the Magnetic Quantum Limit

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a two-layer electron system spontaneously transfers charge between layers near the magnetic quantum limit, leading to new fractional quantum Hall states due to interlayer symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It reveals the occurrence of spontaneous interlayer charge transfer and the stabilization of new fractional quantum Hall states at specific filling factors near the magnetic quantum limit.

Findings

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in electron layers near the quantum limit.

Formation of new fractional quantum Hall states at /15.

Interlayer charge transfer driven by correlation energy gains.

Abstract

Experiments reveal that a confined electron system with two equally-populated layers at zero magnetic field can spontaneously break this symmetry through an interlayer charge transfer near the magnetic quantum limit. New fractional quantum Hall states at unusual total filling factors such as \nu = 11/15 (= 1/3 + 2/5) stabilize as signatures that the system deforms itself, at substantial electrostatic energy cost, in order to gain crucial correlation energy by "locking in" separate incompressible liquid phases at unequal fillings in the two layers (e.g., layered 1/3 and 2/5 states in the case of \nu = 11/15).