Abstract
The cooperative motion induced structural evolution of the liquid with microheterogeneity is investigated in quasi-2D dusty plasma liquids, through direct optical visualization. A novel bond-dynamics analysis is used to further classify the robust cooperative 2D clusters into static, rotating, and drifting patches, beyond the earlier findings of the cooperative hopping strings and bands. The relative motion between two adjacent clusters causes the formation of a fractal network with narrow shear strips along the cluster interface. The rotation of the large ordered patch through rupturing into multiple rotating patches followed by the healing process, and the growth to a larger ordered patch by aligning the different lattice orientations of the adjacent ordered domains through patch rupturing, rotation, drifting, and merging are the key processes for the microstructural evolution.
- Received 27 June 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.225003
© 2012 American Physical Society
Focus
Tracking Rearrangements in a 2D Liquid
Published 26 November 2012
Charged beads floating in a plasma spontaneously form a two-dimensional liquid consisting of small, ordered regions that slide past one another and may mimic the motions in real liquids.
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