Phase transitions in 2D plasma crystals driven by tunable interactions

The classic examples of a system with aligned anisotropic interactions are electro- and magnetorheological ER/MR fluids, where anisotropic pair interactions between particles are induced by external electric or magnetic AC fields. ER/MR effect can be created in various physical systems, including colloids with induced dipoles, suspensions of dielectric particles, polymers, and ER complex plasmas. Furthermore, using alternating biaxial rotating external fields one can also create binary interactions which may be described best using “negative” dipolar potentials.