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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Experimental observation of a first-order phase transition in a complex plasma monolayer crystal
M G Hariprasad1, P Bandyopadhyay1, Garima Arora1
1Institute For Plasma Research, HBNI, Bhat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 382428.
Abstract:
The formation and melting of a monolayered charged dust particle crystal in a DC glow discharge argon plasma is studied. The nature of the melting or formation process is established as a first-order phase transition from the variations in the Coulomb coupling parameter, the dust temperature, the structural order parameter, and from the existence of a hysteresis behavior. Our experimental results are distinctly different from existing theoretical predictions for two dimensional crystals based on the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young mechanism or the grain boundary induced melting and indicate a mechanism that is akin to a fluctuation induced first-order phase transition in complex plasmas.
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