Structural Phases of Bounded Three-Dimensional Screened Coulomb Clusters (Finite Yukawa System)

The formation of 3-D dust clusters within a complex plasma modeled as a spatially confined Yukawa system is simulated using the box_tree code. Similar to unscreened Coulomb clusters, the occurrence of concentric shells with characteristic occupation numbers was observed. Both the occupation numbers and radii were found to depend on the Debye length. Ground and low-energy metastable states of the shielded 3-D Coulomb clusters were determined for 4<N<20. The structure and energy of the clusters in different states was analyzed for various Debye lengths. Structural phase transitions, including intershell structural phase transitions and intrashell structural phase transitions, were observed for varying Debye length and the critical value for transitions calculated