Mean-field calculations for the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a large magnetic field with a partially filled Landau level with index N≥2 consistently yield ``stripe-ordered'' charge-density wave ground-states, for much the same reason that frustrated phase separation leads to stripe ordered states in doped Mott insulators. We have studied the effects of quantum and thermal fluctuations about such a state and show that they can lead to a set of electronic liquid crystalline states, particularly a stripe-nematic phase which is stable at T>0. Recent measurements of the longitudinal resistivity of a set of quantum Hall devices have revealed that these systems spontaneously develop, at low temepratures, a very large anisotropy. We interpret these experiments as evidence for a stripe nematic phase, and propose a general phase diagram for this system.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9810151,
title = {Liquid Crystal Phases of Quantum Hall Systems},
author = {Eduardo Fradkin and Steven A. Kivelson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9810151},
year = {2009}
}