Microstructure of a liquid two-dimensional dusty plasma under shear

The microstructure of a strongly coupled liquid undergoing a shear flow was studied experimentally. The liquid was a shear melted two-dimensional plasma crystal, i.e., a single-layer suspension of micrometer-size particles in a rf discharge plasma. Trajectories of particles were measured using video microscopy. The resulting microstructure was anisotropic, with compressional and extensional axes at around ±45° to the flow direction. Corresponding ellipticity of the pair correlation function g(r) or static structure factor S(k) gives the (normalized) shear rate of the flow.