The ground state of the two dimensional electron gas near ν=1 is investigated by inelastic light scattering measurements carried down to very low temperatures. Away from ν=1, the ferromagnetic spin wave collapses and a new low-energy spin wave emerges below the Zeeman gap. The emergent spin wave shows soft behavior as its energy increases with temperature and reaches the Zeeman energy for temperatures above 2 K. The observed softening indicates an instability of the two dimensional electron gas towards a magnetic order that breaks spin rotational symmetry. We discuss our findings in light of the possible existence of a Skyrme crystal.
@article{arxiv.0709.0541,
title = {Soft Spin Wave Near nu=1: Evidence for a Magnetic Instability in Skyrmion Systems},
author = {Y. Gallais and J. Yan and A. Pinczuk and L. N. Pfeiffer and K. W. West},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.0541},
year = {2009}
}