Frank's constant in the hexatic phase
P. Keim, G. Maret, and H.H. von Gruenberg
TL;DR
This study measures Frank's constant in a 2D colloidal system's hexatic phase, confirming theoretical predictions about phase transitions and disclination unbinding through detailed microscopy data analysis.
Contribution
It provides a quantitative experimental validation of the KTHNY theory's predictions on phase transitions in two-dimensional systems.
Findings
Frank's constant F_A equals 72/pi at the hexatic to isotropic transition
F_A diverges at the hexatic to crystal transition as predicted
The orientational correlation length xi6 varies with temperature
Abstract
Using video-microscopy data of a two-dimensional colloidal system the bond-order correlation function G6 is calculated and used to determine the temperature-dependence of both the orientational correlation length xi6 in the isotropic liquid phase and the Frank constant F_A in the hexatic phase. F_A takes the value 72/pi at the hexatic to isotropic liquid phase transition and diverges at the hexatic to crystal transition as predicted by the KTHNY-theory. This is a quantitative test of the mechanism of breaking the orientational symmetry by disclination unbinding.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.