Reentrant transitions in colloidal or dusty plasma bilayers

Abstract

The phase diagram of crystalline bilayers of particles interacting via a Yukawa potential is calculated for arbitrary screening lengths and particle densities. Staggered rectangular, square, rhombic and triangular structures are found to be stable including a first-order transition between two different rhombic structures. For varied screening length at fixed density, one of these rhombic phases exhibits both a single and even a double reentrant transition. Our predictions can be verified experimentally in strongly confined charged colloidal suspensions or dusty plasma bilayers.

4 pages, 3 eps figs - revtex4. PRL - in press