Figure 1

Phase diagram from constant $N,A,T$ Langevin dynamics simulations of ${10}^4$ particles interacting via the pair repulsive Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) potential in an external periodic potential in density $\rho$ and amplitude $\beta V_0$ plane at temperature $T=0.5$. Blue (dark-gray) open circles mark the state points on the liquid ($L$) and solid ($S$) phase boundary. The red (light gray) arrows show two quench protocols where the system was first equilibrated either in the $L$ phase ($Q_1$) or in the reentrant liquid phase ($Q_2$) and subsequently quenched to $S$. Upper inset: Triangular lattice of lattice parameter $a$ with the position of the crests of the external potential of wavelength $d=\sqrt{3}a/2$ marked by horizontal parallel lines. Lower inset: Order parameter $\varphi$ of the system (see text) as a function of $\beta V_0$ plotted using open triangles for $\rho =0.87$. The blue (dark gray) dotted line is drawn at the cutoff value of $\varphi$, i.e., at $\varphi =0.35$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

Correlation functions $C(x,t)$ and $C(y,t)$ after the quenches $Q_1$ [(a) and (c)] and $Q_2$ [(b) and (d)] along both $x$ and $y$ directions. The characteristic lengths $\xi \left(t\right)$ are extracted from the cutoff (see text) $C_0=0.65\left(0.61\right)$ in the $x\left(y\right)$ direction. The insets present scaling plots showing the collapse of all the data for various times onto single graphs for each of the four cases—which is evidence of dynamical scaling in our system.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

Behavior of the characteristic lengths $\xi \left(t\right)$ vs $t$ for the quench protocols $Q_1$ (a) and $Q_2$ (b). Solid red (light gray) circles: $\xi$ in the $x$ direction; open blue (dark gray) circles: $\xi$ in the $y$ direction. The straight lines show $t^{1/2}$ and $t^{1/4}$ behavior, respectively. Note that while the time dependence of the $Q_1$ quench shows some evidence for normal diffusion in the $y$ direction and at late times, relaxation of the order parameter after the $Q_2$ quench is always driven by single-file diffusion due to the strong confining effect of the laser potential. (c) Schematic snapshot showing the reduction of defect density due to pairwise annihilation of a dislocation with an antidislocation. Note that the annihilation process occurs by SFD where the order of particles within a layer is not altered.Reuse & Permissions