Eur. Phys. J. E (2013) 36: 25
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

Abstract

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.