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Decay dynamics of a single spherical domain in near-critical phase-separated conditions
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Domain decay is at the heart of the so-called evaporation-condensation Ostwald-ripening regime of phase ordering kinetics, where the growth of large domains occurs at the expense of smaller ones, which are expected to `evaporate'. We experimentally investigate such decay dynamics at the level of a single spherical domain picked from one phase in coexistence and brought into the other phase by an opto-mechanical approach, in a near-critical phase-separated binary liquid mixture. We observe that the decay dynamics is generally not compatible with the theoretically expected surface-tension decay laws for conserved order parameters. Using a mean-field description, we quantitatively explain this apparent disagreement by the gradient of solute concentrations induced by gravity close to a critical point. Finally, we determine the conditions for which buoyancy becomes negligible compared to capillarity and perform dedicated experiments that retrieve the predicted surface-tension induced decay exponent. The surface-tension driven decay dynamics of conserved order parameter systems in the presence and the absence of gravity, is thus established at the level of a single domain.<br />Comment: 4 pages (main text) + 8 pages (SM); Accepted in PRL
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.2402.04973
- Document Type :
- Working Paper