New Insight into\nQuantity-Dependent Self-Assembly\nPattern of Light Levitating Droplet Clusters

It has been reported that the self-assembly pattern of\nlight levitating\ndroplet clusters above the hot gas–liquid interface is dependent\non the quantity of droplets. However, the already-reported theoretical\nexplanation of the quantity-dependent self-assembly pattern cannot\nwork well when the quantity of the light levitating droplet exceeds\n15. Herein, we propose a new theoretical perspective to understand\nthe self-assembly of a light levitating droplet cluster by referring\nto the classical densest packing problem of identical rigid circles\nin a larger circle with the introduction of the minimum total potential\nenergy principle. Amazingly, the theoretical results obtained by this\nnew approach agree well with experimental results, even though the\nquantity of the light levitating droplet is up to 142. This study\ndeepens our understanding of the quantity-dependent self-assembly\npattern of the light levitating droplet clusters and provides significant\ninspiration for other analogous self-assembly phenomena.