Solid superheating observed in two-dimensional strongly coupled dusty plasma.
It is demonstrated experimentally that strongly coupled plasma exhibits solid superheating. A 2D suspension of microspheres in dusty plasma, initially self-organized in a solid lattice, was heated and then cooled rapidly by turning laser heating on and off. Particles were tracked using video microscopy, allowing atomistic-scale observation during melting and solidification. During rapid heating, the suspension remained in a solid structure at temperatures above the melting point, demonstrating solid superheating. Hysteresis diagrams did not indicate liquid supercooling in this 2D system.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. yan-feng@uiowa.edu
Yan
Y
Feng
J
J
Goree
Bin
B
Liu