Structure and Melting of Two-Species Charged Clusters in a Parabolic Trap

TL;DR

This study investigates how two-species charged particles arrange and melt in a 2D parabolic trap, revealing that symmetry matching between inner and outer structures enhances stability and melting temperature.

Contribution

It introduces the effect of charge ratio and symmetry matching on the structural arrangement and melting behavior of two-species charged clusters in a confining trap.

Findings

Matching symmetry configurations have higher melting temperatures.

Inner and outer shell structures can align symmetrically based on charge ratio.

Symmetry matching increases thermal stability and intershell rotation thresholds.

Abstract

We consider a system of charged particles interacting with an unscreened Coulomb repulsion in a two-dimensional parabolic confining trap. The static charge on a portion of the particles is twice as large as the charge on the remaining particles. The particles separate into a shell structure with those of greater charge situated farther from the center of the trap. As we vary the ratio of the number of particles of the two species, we find that for certain configurations, the symmetry of the arrangement of the inner cluster of singly-charged particles matches the symmetry of the outer ring of doubly-charged particles. These matching configurations have a higher melting temperature and a higher thermal threshold for intershell rotation between the species than the nonmatching configurations.