Temperature-Driven Structural Phase Transition for Trapped Ions and a Proposal for its Experimental Detection

A Wigner crystal formed with trapped ions can undergo a structural phase transition, which is determined only by the mechanical conditions on a classical level. Instead of this classical result, we show that through consideration of quantum and thermal fluctuation, a structural phase transition can be driven solely by a change in the system's temperature. We determine a finite-temperature phase diagram for trapped ions using the renormalization group method and the path integral formalism, and propose an experimental scheme to observe the predicted temperature-driven structural phase transition, which is well within the reach of the current ion trap technology.