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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Structure and melting of two-species charged clusters in a parabolic trap
J A Drocco1, C J Olson Reichhardt, C Reichhardt
1Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA.
Abstract:
We consider a system of charged particles interacting with an unscreened Coulomb repulsion in a two-dimensional parabolic confining trap. The static charge on a portion of the particles is twice as large as the charge on the remaining particles. The particles separate into a shell structure with those of greater charge situated farther from the center of the trap. As we vary the ratio of the number of particles of the two species, we find that for certain configurations, the symmetry of the arrangement of the inner cluster of singly charged particles matches the symmetry of the outer ring of doubly charged particles. These matching configurations have a higher melting temperature and a higher thermal threshold for intershell rotation between the species than the nonmatching configurations.
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