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Crystallization Dynamics Of A Single Layer Complex Plasma, Angela Douglass, Peter Hartmann, Jorge C. Reyes, Lorin S. Matthews, Truell W. Hyde, Aniko Kovacs, Zoltan Donko

Articles

We report a series of complex (dusty) plasma experiments, aimed at the study of the detailed time evolution of the recrystallization process followinga rapid quench of a two-dimensional dust liquid. The experiments were accompanied by large-scale (million-particle) molecular dynamicssimulations, assuming Yukawa-type interparticle interaction. Both experiment and simulation show a ∝t(α) (power-law) dependence of the linear crystallite domain size as measured by the bond-order correlation length, translational correlation length, dislocation (defect) density, and adirect size measurement algorithm. The results show two stages of order formation. On short time scales, individual particle motion dominates; this is afast process …