Shear-melting of a hexagonal columnar crystal by proliferation of dislocations
Soft Condensed Matter
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
A hexagonal columnar crystal undergoes a shear-melting transition above a critical shear rate or stress. We combine the analysis of the shear-thinning regime below the melting with that of synchrotron X-ray scattering data under shear and propose the melting to be due to a proliferation of dislocations, whose density is determined by both techniques to vary as a power law of the shear rate with a 2/3 exponent, as expected for a creep model of crystalline solids. Moreover, our data suggest the existence under shear of a line hexatic phase, between the columnar crystal and the liquid phase.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0407030,
title = {Shear-melting of a hexagonal columnar crystal by proliferation of dislocations},
author = {L. Ramos and F. Molino},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0407030},
year = {2007}
}