Abstract
The solid-liquid phase transition in two dimensions has proved to be a less simple problem than was once imagined. Even the simplest example of particles in a uniform two-dimensional (2D) space with repulsive power-law interaction is argued to show different melting behavior according to the relative energies of the defects involved. The first and attractively simple idea proposed by Kosterlitz and Thouless1 was that such systems might melt because of the basic instability of a solid to the destruction of rigidity which accompanies the thermodynamic dissociation of dislocation pairs. But this instability only sets an upper bound to the temperature at which a solid may exist. For example, Chui2 pointed out that it is possible for dislocations in the solid to group themselves into grain boundaries, in which case the melting can occur at lower temperature and become of first order. Density-wave theories3 also suggest preempting of the dislocation instability, again with the first-order behavior of the thermodynamic potential.
† Article reprinted from Phys. Rev. Lett 53, 588 (1984)
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© 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Glattli, D.C., Andrei, E.Y., Williams, F.I.B. (1997). Thermodynamic Measurement on the Melting of a Two-Dimensional Electron Solid. In: Andrei, E.Y. (eds) Two-Dimensional Electron Systems. Physics and Chemistry of Materials with Low-Dimensional Structures, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1286-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1286-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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