Emergent nematic phase in GaAs quantum wells

In high (N ≥ 2) half-filled Landau Levels (LLs), the competition between long-range repulsive and short-range attractive components of Coulomb interaction leads to compressible charge-ordered phases commonly known as quantum Hall stripes. It is also known that even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states in the N = 1 LL (ν = 5/2 and 7/2) can transform into stripe phases upon the application of an in-plane magnetic field. Here, we report on experimental evidence of another nematic phase which is stabilized in a very narrow range of tilt angles. While the width of this phase (in terms of filling factor) is similar to that of conventional stripes, about 0.2, it can be realized in a rather wide range of filling factors (between about 2 and 5/2). Interestingly, the phase is the most robust not near half-filling, but near ν = 7/3, where it competes with fractional quantum Hall effect.