title: Melting of dust plasma crystals with defects
abstract: The role of defects in the melting transition of a bilayer dust plasma crystal with vertical alignment is studied using Langevin molecular dynamics simulations. Two types of defects are considered: (i) point defects and dislocations and (ii) additional particles which are placed below and above the bilayer crystal (i.e., the so-called strong defects). It is shown that the presence of point defects and a few dislocations does not change the two-step melting scenario previously found for nondefect bilayer crystals. This contrast with the influence of the strong defects which leads to a substantial increase of the kinetic energy of particles and to local heating of the bilayer dust crystal.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia.
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Schweigert
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Schweigert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melzer
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piel