CLAUDIO CASTELLANO, Federico Corberi
ICTP Trieste
Vacancy-mediated phase separation
We study numerically the phase separation of a binary alloy where
molecules can exchange position only with one vacancy.
We find that at low temperatures for critical quenches the typical
domain size grows as t^(1/2) as opposed to the usual t^(1/3) growth law.
This fast growth reflects the dominance of mass transport along faceted
domain walls.
For off-critical concentrations there are long-lived preasymptotic
regimes governed by coalescence of diffusing droplets with non trivial
growth exponents.