Effect of the external energy flux on phase separation of binary mixtures

Abstract

We investigate the phase separation kinetics of binary mixtures with the inclusion of external energy flux. The morphology and growth kinetics of domains are governed by the competition between thermally driven diffusion dynamics and externally imposed exchange dynamics. For thermally driven diffusions over nearest-neighboring sites, diagonal oriented interfaces become preferable due to the instability of horizontal and vertical interfaces. For diffusions over next-nearest-neighboring sites, horizontal and vertical interfaces will become dominant. Interestingly, we find that the domain coarsening is accelerated because of the high interface tensions and the interfacial roughness in the presence of external fluctuations, while the coarsening of domains with horizontal or vertical facets is slower than that with tilted interfaces because horizontal or vertical interfaces contain lower interfacial tensions than diagonally oriented ones.