Laser induced reentrant freezing in two-dimensional attractive colloidal systems

Abstract

The effects of an externally applied one-dimensional periodic potential on the freezing/melting behaviour of two-dimensional systems of colloidal particles with a short-range attractive interaction are studied using Monte Carlo simulations. In such systems, incommensuration results when the periodicity of the external potential does not match the length-scale at which the minimum of the attractive potential occurs. To study the effects of this incommensuration, we consider two different models for the system. Our simulations for both these models show the phenomenon of reentrant freezing as the strength of the periodic potential is varied. Our simulations also show that different exotic phases can form when the strength of the periodic potential is high, depending on the length-scale at which the minimum of the attractive pair-potential occurs.

24 pages (including figures) in preprint format

References in corpus (2)

• Phase Transitions of Soft Disks in External Periodic Potentials: A Monte Carlo Study
• A numerical renormalization group study of laser induced freezing

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Direct test of defect mediated laser induced melting theory for two dimensional solids
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• Mode-coupling theory of the glass transition for a liquid in a periodic potential
• Freezing and re-entrant melting of hard discs in a one-dimensional potential:\\ Predictions based on a pressure-balance equation
• Freezing of a soft-core fluid in a one-dimensional potential: Appearance of a locked smectic phase