Laser-induced quasicrystalline order in charge-stabilized colloidal systems

Abstract

We have studied the ordering of a two-dimensional charge-stabilized colloidal system in the presence of a stationary one-dimensionally modulated laser field formed by the superposition of two modulations with wave vectors q₀t and q₀/t, where q₀ is the wave vector corresponding to the first peak of the direct correlation function of the unperturbed liquid, and t is the golden mean. In the framework of the Landau-Alexander-McTague theory we find that a decagonal quasicrystalline phase is stabler than the liquid or the triangular lattice in certain regions of the phase diagram. Our study also shows a reentrant melting phenomenon for larger laser field strengths. We find that the transition from the modulated liquid to the quasicrystalline phase is continuous in contrast to a first order transition from the modulated liquid to the triangular crystalline phase.