Experiments demonstrate unusual melting and recrystallization behavior in one-dimensional electron crystals
Friday, March 22, 2013 - 12:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —The melting of ice is a familiar process: the ice gradually loses its crystalline structure and becomes a featureless puddle of liquid. Normally, no amount of further heating will bring back the crystalline structure. Experiments by Hiroki Ikegami and co-workers at the Low Temperature Physics Laboratory in the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute have now shown that a one-dimensional 'Wigner' crystal on the surface of liquid helium can be made to repeatedly melt and recrystallize with rising electron density.