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Digital imaging is used to study the instantaneous particle positions and trajectories of highly charged monodisperse 0. 3--diam polystyrene spheres in water suspension. We find that a three-dimensional fcc crystal near a smooth glass wall melts abruptly into a layered fluid as a function of the in-plane sphere density parallel to the wall. In contrast, a single two-dimensional layer of the identical colloid confined between two smooth glass walls exhibits a gradual two-stage melting transition in which there are separate divergences of translational and orientational order.
Murray et al. (Sun,) studied this question.