Onset of Interlayer Phase Coherence in a Bilayer Two-Dimensional Electron System: Effect of Layer Density Imbalance

Tunneling and Coulomb drag are sensitive probes of spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in bilayer two-dimensional electron systems at total Landau level filling factor $\nu_T = 1$. We find that the phase boundary between the interlayer phase coherent state and the weakly-coupled compressible phase moves to larger layer separations as the electron density distribution in the bilayer is imbalanced. The critical layer separation increases quadratically with layer density difference.