Long-time growth kinetics of first order phase transitions in the presence of a boundary layer

Abstract

The late stage growth mechanism for a first order phase transition, either through nucleation growth or spinodal decomposition, is well understood to be an Ostwald ripening or coarsening process, in which larger domains grow at the expense of smaller ones. The growth kinetics in this regime was shown by Lifshitz and Slyozov to follow a \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\begin{document}$t^{1/3}$\end{document}t1/3 law. However, the kinetics is altered if there exists a barrier ahead of the growth front, irrespective of the physical origin of the boundary layer. We present an analytic calculation for the growth kinetics in the presence of a boundary layer, showing that in the limit of barrier-dominated growth, the domains grow with a \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\begin{document}$t^{1/2}$\end{document}t1/2 law. This result holds true in the dilute regime independent of whether the growing nuclei are spherical or cylindrical.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jan 24, 2011
Source ID
10.1063/1.3528002

Entities

People

  • Mithun K. Mitra
  • Murugappan Muthukumar

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Massachusetts

Tags

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics