Competition between a Fractional Quantum Hall Liquid and Bubble and Wigner Crystal Phases in the Third Landau Level

Abstract

Magnetotransport measurements were performed in an ultrahigh mobility GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well of density approximately 3.0 x 10(11) cm(-2). The temperature dependence of the magnetoresistance Rxx was studied in detail in the vicinity of nu=9/2. In particular, we discovered new minima in Rxx at a filling factor nu approximately 41/5 and 44/5, but only at intermediate temperatures 80 approximately less than T approximately less than 120 mK. We interpret these as evidence for a fractional quantum Hall liquid forming in the N=2 Landau level and competing with bubble and Wigner crystal phases favored at lower temperatures. Our data suggest that a magnetically driven insulator-insulator quantum phase transition occurs between the bubble and Wigner crystal phases at T=0.