The collective motion of dust particles during the mode-coupling induced melting of a two-dimensional plasma crystal is explored in molecular dynamics simulations. The crystal is compressed horizontally by an anisotropic confinement. This compression
leads to an asymmetric triggering of the mode-coupling instability which is accompanied by alternating chains of in-phase and anti-phase oscillating particles. A new order parameter is proposed to quantify the synchronization with respect to different directions of the crystal. Depending on the orientation of the confinement anisotropy, mode-coupling instability and synchronized motion are observed in one or two directions. Notably, the synchronization is found to be direction-dependent. The good agreement with experiments suggests that the confinement anisotropy can be used to explain the observed synchronization process.
Experimental results on an auto-oscillatory pattern observed in a complex plasma are presented. The experiments are performed with an argon plasma which is produced under microgravity conditions using a capacitively-coupled rf discharge at low power
and gas pressure. The observed intense wave activity in the complex plasma cloud correlates well with the low-frequency modulation of the discharge voltage and current and is initiated by periodic void contractions. Particle migrations forced by the waves are of long-range repulsive and attractive character.
Experimental results on the dislocation dynamics in a two-dimensional plasma crystal are presented. Edge dislocations were created in pairs in lattice locations where the internal shear stress exceeded a threshold and then moved apart in the glide pl
ane at a speed higher than the sound speed of shear waves, $C_T$. The experimental system, a plasma crystal, allowed observation of this process at an atomistic (kinetic) level. The early stage of this process is identified as a stacking fault. At a later stage, supersonically moving dislocations generated shear-wave Mach cones.
