title: Effective interactions and melting of a one-dimensional defect lattice within a two-dimensional confined colloidal solid.
abstract: We report Monte Carlo studies of a two-dimensional soft colloidal crystal confined in a strip geometry by parallel walls. The wall-particle interaction has corrugations along the length of the strip. Compressing the crystal by decreasing the distance between the walls induces a structural transition characterized by the sudden appearance of a one-dimensional array of extended defects each of which span several lattice parameters, a "soliton staircase." We obtain the effective interaction between the solitons. A Lindemann criterion shows that the reduction in dimensionality causes the finite soliton lattice to readily melt as the temperature is raised.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg Universtät, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Yu-Hang
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chui
authors.forename: Surajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.forename: Ian K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Snook
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Binder