Kinetics of a vacancy-driven order-disorder transition in a two-dimensional binary alloy.

Abstract

Domain growth in a two-dimensional quenched binary alloy which undergoes an order-disorder transition is studied. We have used Monte Carlo simulation of a nearest-neighbor antiferromagentic Ising model. The novelty is that the dynamics is introduced via a single vacancy that moves by jumping to nearest as well as next nearest neighbors. The excess energy decay and the scaling of the structure factor have been studied. An algebraic behavior R(t)\ensuremath{\propto}${\mathit{t}}^{\mathit{x}}$ with x=0.77\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03 is found. This dynamics can be used to accelerate equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations.