Enhancement of mobilities in a pinned multidomain crystal

TL;DR

This study investigates how mobility and domain configurations in a partially pinned elastic lattice change with pinning strength, revealing the existence of multidomain crystals and their impact on depinning behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a controllable macroscopic model system to observe theoretically predicted multidomain configurations in pinned lattices at different filling ratios.

Findings

Degenerate domain configurations are observed at specific filling ratios.

Weak pinning reduces the relevance of trapped vs. untrapped particle distinction.

Multidomain crystals influence depinning dynamics.

Abstract

Mobility properties inside and around degenerate domains of an elastic lattice partially pinned on a square array of traps are explored by means of a fully controllable model system of macroscopic particles. We focus on the different configurations obtained for filling ratios equal to 1 or 2 when the pinning strength is lowered. These theoretically expected but never observed configurations are degenerated, which implies the existence of a multidomain crystal. We show that the distinction between trapped and untrapped particles that is made in the case of strong pinning is not relevant for such a weaker pinning. Indeed, one ought to distinguish between particles inside or around the domains associated to positional degeneracies. The possible consequences on the depinning dynamics of the lattice are discussed.