Crystalline multilayers of the confined Yukawa system

Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Corresponding author: messina@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de

Received: 9 January 2009
Accepted: 19 March 2009

Abstract

The phase diagram of Yukawa particles confined between two parallel hard walls is calculated at zero temperature beyond the bilayer regime by lattice-sum-minimization. Tuning the screening, a rich phase behavior is found in the regime bounded by stable two triangular layers and three square layers. In this regime, alternating prism phases with square and triangular basis, structures derived from a hcp bulk lattice, and a structure with two outer layers and two inner staggered rectangular layers, reminiscent of a Belgian waffle iron, are stable. These structures are verifiable in experiments on charged colloidal suspensions and dusty plasma sheets.