Crystalline multilayers of the confined Yukawa system

The phase diagram of Yukawa particles confined between two parallel hard walls is calculated at zero-temperature beyond the bilayer regime by lattice-sum-minimization. Tuning the screening, a rich phase behavior is found in the regime bounded by stable two-triangular layers and 3-square layers. In this regime, alternating prism phases with square and triangular basis, structures derived from a hcp bulk lattice, and a structure with two outer layers and two inner staggered rectangular layers, reminiscent of a Belgian waffle iron, are stable. These structures are verifiable in experiments on charged colloidal suspensions and dusty plasma sheets.