  Liquid crystalline phases of matter permeate nature and technology, with
examples ranging from cell membranes to liquid-crystal displays. Remarkably,
electronic liquid crystal phases can exist in two-dimensional electron systems
(2DES) at half Landau level filling in the quantum Hall regime. Theory has
predicted the existence of a liquid crystal smectic phase that breaks both
rotational and translational symmetries. However, previous experiments in 2DES
are most consistent with an anisotropic nematic phase breaking only rotational
symmetry. Here we report three transport phenomena at half-filling in ultra-low
disorder 2DES: a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the sample resistance,
dramatic onset of large time-dependent resistance fluctuations, and a sharp
feature in the differential resistance suggestive of depinning. These data
suggest that a sequence of symmetry-breaking phase transitions occurs as
temperature is lowered: first a transition from an isotropic liquid to a
nematic phase and finally to a liquid crystal smectic phase.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics