EurekAlert January 19, 2021
Researchers in Russia present a detailed analysis of their experimental study, which shows clear evidence of a two-stage melting process of a quasi-two-dimensional dusty plasma system in a high-frequency gas discharge. They accurately calculated global parameters of the orientational and translational order, as well as their susceptibilities to determine two critical points, related to “solid-to-hexatic” and “hexatic-to-liquid” phase transitions. The nature of the emerging defects and changes in their mutual concentration, in addition to the estimate of core energy of free dislocations also counts in favor of the formation of an intermediate hexatic phase. These results are fully consistent with the Berezinsky–Kosterlitz–Thouless theory…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The scheme of the experimental setup. Credit: Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 523 (2021)