Shock width measured under liquid and solid conditions in a two-dimensional dusty plasma

Widths of shocks are compared, under liquid and solid conditions, for a two-dimensional layer of charged microspheres levitated in a plasma. In this strongly coupled dusty plasma, a shock was launched as a blast wave by moving an exciter wire at a supersonic speed and then bringing it to a halt. Runs were repeated with the layer of microspheres prepared two ways: a crystallinelike solid and a liquid. The liquid was sustained using laser heating, with conditions that were otherwise the same as in the solid. The shock width was found to be less in a liquid than in a solid, where it was four to six lattice constants. These measurements were based on the high-gradient region of density profiles. The profiles were obtained from particle coordinates, measured by high-speed video imaging. The spatial resolution was improved by combining particle coordinates, in the shock's frame of reference, from a sequence of images.