Pattern Switching and Polarizability for Colloids in Optical Trap Arrays
arXiv:0904.2403 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.80.022401
Abstract
We show that colloidal molecular crystal states interacting with a periodic substrate, such as an optical trap array, and a rotating external field can undergo a rapid pattern switching in which the orientation of the crystal changes. In some cases, a martensitic-like symmetry switching occurs. It is also possible to create a polarized state where the colloids in each substrate minima develop a director field which smoothly rotates with the external drive, similar to liquid crystal behavior. These results open the possibility for creating novel types of devices using photonic band gap materials, and should be generalizable to a variety of other condensed matter systems with multiple particle trapping.
4 pages, 4 figures
References in corpus (10)
- Flat bands and Wigner crystallization in the honeycomb optical lattice
- Observation of Vortex Pinning in Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Influence of hydrodynamic interactions on lane formation in oppositely charged driven colloids
- Tailoring of phononic band structures in colloidal crystals
- Spin models for orientational ordering of colloidal molecular crystals
- Melting of Colloidal Molecular Crystals on Triangular Lattices
- Nonlinear Driven Response of a Phase-Field Crystal in a Periodic Pinning Potential
- Collective Sliding States for Colloidal Molecular Crystals
- Vortex-lattice pinning in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates
- Heterogeneities and Topological Defects in Two-Dimensional Pinned Liquids
Cited by in corpus (7)
- Dynamic Regimes for Driven Colloidal Particles on a Periodic Substrate at Commensurate and Incommensurate Fillings
- Multi-Step Ordering in Kagome and Square Artificial Spin Ice
- Landscape-Inversion Phase Transition in Dipolar Colloids: Tuning the Structure and Dynamics of 2D Crystals
- Statics and Dynamics of Yukawa Cluster Crystals on Ordered Substrates
- Phonon spectra of a two-dimensional solid dusty plasma modified by two-dimensional periodic substrates
- Colloidal ionic complexes on periodic substrates: ground state configurations and pattern switching
- Sliding states of a soft-colloid cluster crystal: Cluster versus single-particle hopping