Melting-freezing cycles in a relatively sheared pair of crystalline monolayers

Abstract

The nonequilibrium dynamical behaviour that arises when two ordered two-dimensional monolayers of particles are sheared over each other is studied in Brownian dynamics simulations. A curious sequence of nonequilibrium states is observed as the driving rate is increased, the most striking of which is a sliding state with irregular alternation between disordered and ordered states. We comment on possible mechanisms underlying these cycles, and experiments that could observe them.

Publication
EUROPHYSICS LETTERS 60, 636-642 (2002).
Date
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