Bilayer quantum hall systems at nu(T)=1: coulomb drag and the transition from weak to strong interlayer coupling

Measurements revealing anomalously large frictional drag at the transition between the weakly and strongly coupled regimes of a bilayer two-dimensional electron system at total Landau level filling factor nu(T)=1 are reported. This result suggests the existence of fluctuations, either static or dynamic, near the phase boundary separating the quantized Hall state at small layer separations from the compressible state at larger separations. Interestingly, the anomalies in drag seem to persist to larger layer separations than does interlayer phase coherence as detected in tunneling.