Glass transition of charged particles in two-dimensional confinement

Abstract

The glass transition of mesoscopic charged particles in two-dimensional confinement is studied by mode-coupling theory. We consider two types of effective interactions between the particles, corresponding to two different models for the distribution of surrounding ions that are integrated out in coarse-grained descriptions. In the first model, a planar monolayer of charged particles is immersed in an unbounded isotropic bath of ions, giving rise to an isotropically screened Debye-Hückel (Yukawa)-type effective interaction. The second, experimentally more relevant system is a monolayer of negatively charged particles that levitate atop a flat horizontal electrode, as frequently encountered in laboratory experiments with complex (dusty) plasmas. A steady plasma current toward the electrode gives rise to an anisotropic effective interaction potential between the particles, with an algebraically long-ranged in-plane decay. In a comprehensive parameter scan that covers the typical range of experimentally accessible plasma conditions, we calculate and compare the mode-coupling predictions for the glass transition in both kinds of systems.

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© 2015 American Physical Society. Received 20 February 2015; published 8 May 2015. The authors acknowledge support from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme, Grant Agreement No. 267499. M.H. acknowledges support by a fellowship within the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

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Submitted - 1502.06336v1.pdf

Published - PhysRevE.91.052301.pdf

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