Abstract
Understanding pattern formation during phase separation is a key topic in materials science for the important role that patterns play in determining macroscopic physical properties. In this work, we show how pattern formation can be controlled using a phase-separation trigger propagating outwards from a point. We found a range of patterns, including a random droplet pattern, a concentric pattern and a dendritic pattern, depending on the speed at which the trigger propagates, while only the random droplet pattern is observed in a system with homogeneous cooling. We also found that the phase at the core of the concentric pattern periodically changes with time. In addition, we investigated pattern formation during phase separation induced by multiple propagated triggers. When we propagate the triggers from periodic points in space, a metastable regular hexagonal pattern is formed. We also found a bifurcation between a case where the majority phase becomes a droplet phase and a case where the minority phase adopts a droplet pattern. We also confirm the existence of a percolated, bicontinuous phase, even with an asymmetric composition.
Highlights
The trigger induces the effects of a temperature quench in real systems
We investigate pattern formation for different trigger propagation speeds and mean area fraction
We find a random droplet pattern, a concentric circle pattern, and a dendritic pattern
Summary
Understanding pattern formation during phase separation is a key topic in materials science for the important role that patterns play in determining macroscopic physical properties. Phase separation in two component mixtures can lead to the formation of patterns; their features are directly related to the macroscopic physical properties of the material. This connection between formation and function has motivated a significant body of research over many decades due to its importance for material science[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Note that the space in front of and behind the trigger are asymmetric, not symmetric like for the planar trigger Due to such symmetry breaking, we observe different pattern formation from the layered structure reported in previous studies[23,24,25,26]. We studied pattern formation with multiple triggers propagating from periodically placed points
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