Laser-induced quasicrystalline order in charge-stabilized colloidal systems

Das, Chinmay and Krishnamurthy, HR (1998) Laser-induced quasicrystalline order in charge-stabilized colloidal systems. In: Physical Review B, 58 (10). pp. 5889-5892.

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Abstract

We have studied the ordering of a two-dimensional charge-stabilized colloidal system in the presence of a stationary one-dimensionally modulated laser field formed by the superposition of two modulations with wave vectors $q_o\tau$ and $q_o /\tau$, where $q_o$ is the wave vector corresponding to the first peak of the direct correlation function of the unperturbed liquid, and $\tau$ is the golden mean. In the framework of the Landau-Alexander-McTague theory we find that a decagonal quasicrystalline phase is stabler than the liquid or the triangular lattice in certain regions of the phase diagram. Our study also shows a reentrant melting phenomenon for larger laser field strengths. We find that the transition from the modulated liquid to the quasicrystalline phase is continuous in contrast to a first order transition from the modulated liquid to the triangular crystalline phase.

Item Type: Journal Article Copyright of this article belongs to American Physical Society. Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics 07 Jul 2006 19 Sep 2010 04:30 http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/id/eprint/7924