Abstract
Experimental evidence is presented for an electron-liquid to electron-crystal phase transition in a sheet of electrons on a liquid-He surface. The phase transition has been studied for electron areal densities from 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{8}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ to 9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{8}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ and has yielded melting temperatures between 0.35 and 0.65 K. The phase transition occurs at $\ensuremath{\Gamma}=137\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}15$, where $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ is a measure of the ratio of potential energy to kinetic energy per electron.
Keywords
ElectronPhase transitionPhysicsKinetic energyEnergy (signal processing)Crystal (programming language)Phase (matter)Wigner crystalAtomic physicsCondensed matter physicsMaterials scienceQuantum mechanics
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1979
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 795-798
- Citations
- 1058
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
C. C. Grimes,
G. W. Adams
(1979).
Evidence for a Liquid-to-Crystal Phase Transition in a Classical, Two-Dimensional Sheet of Electrons.
Physical Review Letters
, 42
(12)
, 795-798.
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.42.795
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1103/physrevlett.42.795