Wednesday, June 27, 2012

1206.6018 (Thomas Bohlein et al.)

Experimental observation of directional locking and dynamical ordering
of colloidal monolayers driven across quasiperiodic substrates
   [PDF]

Thomas Bohlein, Clemens Bechinger
We experimentally investigate the structural behavior of an interacting colloidal monolayer being driven across a decagonal quasiperiodic potential landscape created by an optical interference pattern. When the direction of the driving force is varied, we observe the monolayer to be directionally locked on angles corresponding to the symmetry axes of the underlying potential. At such locking steps we observe a dynamically ordered smectic phase in agreement with recent simulations. We demonstrate, that such dynamical ordering is due to the interaction of particle lanes formed by interstitial and non-interstitial particles.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.6018

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