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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 95 » Issue 8
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 088302 (2005) [4 pages]

Melting of Colloidal Molecular Crystals on Triangular Lattices

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A. Šarlah1,*, T. Franosch1,2, and E. Frey2,1
1Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Abteilung Theorie, Glienicker Strasse 100, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
2Arnold Sommerfeld Center and CeNS, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstrasse 37, D-80333 München, Germany

Received 6 August 2004; published 17 August 2005

The phase behavior of a two-dimensional colloidal system subject to a commensurate triangular potential is investigated. We consider the integer number of colloids in each potential minimum as rigid composite objects with effective discrete degrees of freedom. It is shown that there is a rich variety of phases including “herringbone” and “Japanese 6 in 1” phases. The ensuing phase diagram and phase transitions are analyzed analytically within variational mean-field theory and supplemented by Monte Carlo simulations. Consequences for experiments are discussed.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.088302
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.088302
PACS:
82.70.Dd, 64.70.Dv

*On leave from University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

 
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