Competing quantum Hall phases in the second Landau level in low density limit

Abstract

We present in this Letter the results from two high quality, low density GaAs quantum wells. In sample A of electron density n=5.0x10^10 cm^-2, anisotropic electronic transport behavior was observed at \nu=7/2 in the second Landau level. We believe that the anisotropy is due to the large Landau level mixing effect in this sample. In sample B of density 4.1x10^10 cm^-2, strong 8/3, 5/2, and 7/3 fractional quantum Hall states were observed. Furthermore, our energy gap data suggest that, similar to the 8/3 state, the 5/2 state may also be spin unpolarized in the low density limit. The results from both samples show that the strong electron-electron interactions and a large Landau level mixing effect play an import role in the competing ground states in the second landau level.