Spontaneous Interlayer Charge Transfer near the Magnetic Quantum Limit

Experiments reveal that a confined electron system, with two equally populated layers at zero magnetic field, can spontaneously break this symmetry through an interlayer charge transfer near the magnetic quantum limit. New fractional quantum Hall states at unusual total filling factors such as ν=11/15(=1/3+2/5) stabilize as signatures that the system deforms itself, at substantial electrostatic energy cost, in order to gain crucial correlation energy by “locking in” separate incompressible liquid phases at unequal fillings in the two layers (e.g., layered 1/3and 2/5 states in the case of ν=11/15).