Evidence for a Bilayer Quantum Wigner Solid

Abstract

As the electronic charge distribution in a wide quantum well is tuned from a single-layer through an interacting bilayer configuration to weakly-coupled parallel layers, we observe an insulating phase concurrently manifesting a dramatic evolution. The data reveal that interlayer interactions, playing a crucial role, are able to stabilize a {\it correlated bilayer} electron insulator, thus providing tantalizing evidence of a pinned bilayer Wigner solid phase crystallizing at total filling factor $ν$ as large as 0.54 ($ν> \frac14$ in each layer).

10 pages, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.; 4 figures (1 color) and text available for viewing (HTML) or download (Postscript) at http://www.ee.princeton.edu/~hari/