Phase behaviour of colloids in confining geometry

Abstract

We review recent experimental and theoretical studies on two-dimensional (2D) melting in the presence of a one-dimensional (1D) periodic potential. It is demonstrated that a colloidal suspension which is exposed to the interference pattern of two overlapping laser beams show a phase behaviour being totally different from that of 2D systems on homogeneous substrates. This is attributed to the role of particle fluctuations which in the presence of sufficiently strong periodic external potentials enhance particle interactions and thus promote crystallization.