Incipient formation of an electron lattice in a weakly confined quantum wire.

We study the low-temperature transport properties of ID quantum wires as the confinement strength V conf and the carrier density n 1D are varied using a combination of split gates and a top gate in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. At intermediate V conf and n 1D , we observe a jumn in conductance to 4e 2 /h, suggesting a double wire. On further reducing n 1D , plateau at 2e 2 /h returns. Our results show beginnings of the formation of an electron lattice in an interacting quasi-1D quantum wire. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, mixing of spin-aligned levels of the two wires gives rise to more complex states.