Melting of the classical bilayer Wigner crystal: influence of the lattice symmetry

The melting transition of the five different lattices of a bilayer crystal is studied using the Monte-Carlo technique. We found the surprising result that the square lattice has a substantial larger melting temperature as compared to the other lattice structures, which is a consequence of the specific topology of the temperature induced defects. A new melting criterion is formulated which we show to be universal for bilayers as well as for single layer crystals.