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 and where is the wave vector corresponding to the first peak of the direct correlation function of the unperturbed liquid, and τ 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.
- Received 29 April 1998
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.58.R5889
©1998 American Physical Society