  The formation of plasma crystals confined in an external one-dimensional
parabolic potential well is simulated for a normal experimental environment
employing a computer code called BOXITREE. Under appropriate conditions,
crystals were found to form layered systems. The system's structural phase
transitions, including transitions between crystals with differing numbers of
layers and the same number of layers but different intralayer structures, were
investigated and found to agree with previous theoretical and experimental
research results. One- to two-layer transitions were examined in detail and
shown to start at the point where the out-of-plane lattice instability appears.
The resulting three layer system caused by this instability was observed at the
center of the system. Finally, growth rates for this out-of-plane lattice
instability were obtained using the BOXITREE simulation with these results
shown to agree with those obtained from analytical theory.
