Free-expansion melting of a colloidal monolayer

作者：Yeke Tang, A. Armstrong, Richard C. Mockler, William J. O’Sullivan · 发表于：Physical Review Letters · 年份：1989 · DOI：10.1103/physrevlett.62.2401 · 被引用次数：76 · 研究领域：Material Dynamics and Properties、Theoretical and Computational Physics、Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies

A two-dimensional melting transition has been observed in a freely expanding colloidal monolayer lattice formed of 1.01-\ensuremath{\mu}m polystyrene microspheres in an aqueous suspension between two parallel optical flats. The correlation functions computed from digitized images of the particle distribution within a fixed sampling area are consistent with a continuous two-step melting transition. However, direct observations of defect creation and evolution reveal that the system may melt via a first-order process.