Irreversible deposition of magnetic particles on solid surfaces

The irreversible deposition of particles with field-induced magnetic moment s perpendicular to the deposition surface provides a model system for explo ring the effect of interparticle interactions that are independent of any p article/surface interactions. It is shown, for the first time, that interpa rticle interactions can influence crucially the particle configurations for med on the surface solely through the trapping of particles away from that surface. This effect is illustrated by the comparison of the radial distrib ution functions and of the number density fluctuations in two experimental conditions aimed at revealing the influence of the magnetic field.