Probing the microscopic structure of the stripe phase at filling factor 5/2

A prominent manifestation of the competition between repulsive and attractive interactions acting on different length scales is the self-organized ordering of electrons in a stripe-like fashion in material systems such as high-T_c superconductors. Such stripe phases are also believed to occur in two-dimensional electron systems exposed to a perpendicular magnetic field, where they cause a strong anisotropy in transport. Here, we report the use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe the electron density distribution of the anisotropic phase emerging at filling factor 5/2.