Spectroscopy of soft modes and quantum phase transitions in coupled electron bilayers

Strongly correlated two-dimensional electrons in coupled semiconductor bilayers display remarkable broken symmetry many-body states under accessible and controllable experimental conditions. In the case of continuous quantum phase transitions (QPTs), soft collective modes drive the transformations that link distinct ground states of the electron double layers. In this paper we consider results showing that resonant inelastic light scattering methods detect soft collective modes of the double layers and probe their evolution with temperature and magnetic field. The light scattering experiments offer venues of research of fundamental interactions and continuous QPTs in low-dimensional electron liquids. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.