Random flips of electric field in microwave-induced states with spontaneously broken symmetry.

Abstract

In a two-dimensional electron system subject to microwaves and a magnetic field, photovoltages emerge. They can be separated into two components originating from built-in electric fields and electric field domains arising from spontaneous symmetry breaking. The latter occurs in the zero resistance regime only and manifests itself in pulsed behavior, synchronous across the sample. The pulses show sign reversal. This implies a flip of the field in each domain, consistent with the existence of two equally probable electric field domain configurations due to the spontaneous symmetry breaking.