Multilayered crystals of macroions under slit-confinement

Abstract

The crystalline ground state of macroions confined between two neutral parallel plates in the presence of their homogeneously spread counterions is calculated by lattice-sum minimization of candidate phases involving up to six layers. For increasing macroion density, a cascade of solid-solid transitions is found involving various multilayered crystals. The cascade includes triangular monolayer and buckled bilayer as well as rhombic, squared and triangular phase structures.