https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2013-13025-0
Regular Article
Phason-induced dynamics of colloidal particles on quasicrystalline substrates
19839
Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, D-12489, Berlin, Germany
29839
Institut für Theoretische Physik 2: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40204, Düsseldorf, Germany
39839
Institut für Theoretische und Angewandte Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, D-70550, Stuttgart, Germany
49839
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, D-10623, Berlin, Germany
* e-mail: schmiedeberg@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de
Received:
4
December
2012
Accepted:
20
February
2013
Published online:
21
March
2013
Phasons are special hydrodynamic modes that occur in quasicrystals. The trajectories of particles due to a phasonic drift were recently studied by Kromer et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 218301 (2012)) for the case where the particles stay in the minima of a quasicrystalline potential. Here, we study the mean motion of colloidal particles in quasicrystalline laser fields when a phasonic drift or displacement is applied and also consider the cases where the colloids cannot follow the potential minima. While the mean square displacement is similar to the one of particles in a random potential with randomly changing potential wells, there also is a net drift of the colloids that reverses its direction when the phasonic drift velocity is increased. Furthermore, we explore the dynamics of the structural changes in a laser-induced quasicrystal during the rearrangement process that is caused by a steady phasonic drift or an instantaneous phasonic displacement.
Key words: Soft Matter: Colloids and Nanoparticles
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013