Layered structure in condensed, cold, one-component plasmas confined in external fields

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Novel features of solids that may be formed from cold, condensed plasmas confined in external fields (storage rings or ion traps) have been investigated with molecular-dynamics calculations. Such plasmas have well defined outer surfaces and interior layers that are parallel to the outer surface. In each layer the particles are arranged in an approximate hexagonal pattern of a two-dimensional Coulomb lattice. The interactions between layers have also been investigated: They are relatively stronger in the straight (commensurate) and virtually absent in the curved (incommensurate) directions.