Disordered Quantum smectics

Abstract

We study the impurity pinning of the Quantum Hall (QH) smectic state arising in two dimensional electron systems in high Landau levels. We use replicas and a Gaussian Variational method to deal with the disorder. The pinned quantum smectic exhibits very anisotropic behaviour, with density correlations along the direction of the stripes manifesting a Bragg-Glass type behaviour i.e., quasi long range order whereas those in the transverse direction are infra red divergent. We calculate the dynamical conductivity along the stripe direction and find a wavelength dependent pinning peak.