Effect of Strain on Stripe Phases in the Quantum Hall Regime

Preferential orientation of the stripe phases in the quantum Hall (QH) regime has remained a puzzle since its discovery. We show experimentally and theoretically that the direction of high and low resistance of the two-dimensional (2D) hole gas in the QH regime can be controlled by an external strain. Depending on the sign of the in-plane shear strain, the Hartree-Fock energy of holes or electrons is minimized when the charge density wave (CDW) is oriented along the [110] or [1 (1) over bar0] directions. We suggest that shear strains due to internal electric fields in the growth direction are responsible for the observed orientation of CDW in pristine electron and hole samples.