Melting of dusty plasma crystals in oscillating external fields

Abstract

Abstract. The melting transition of a charge-polydisperse dusty plasma crystal under the influence of a time-dependent oscillating field is studied within a simple model. The stochastic dynamics of the dust particles is modelled by a Fokker–Planck description. Using non-equilibrium computer simulations we detect a non-monotonic behaviour of the melting line as a function of the frequency of the external field. This is attributed to a cage resonance effect which is controlled by the intrinsic polydispersity of the sample. The results are qualitatively explained within a cage theory of the polydisperse solid combined with a generalized Lindemann rule of melting. 1.