5,798 research outputs found
Morphological instability, evolution, and scaling in strained epitaxial films: An amplitude equation analysis of the phase field crystal model
Morphological properties of strained epitaxial films are examined through a
mesoscopic approach developed to incorporate both the film crystalline
structure and standard continuum theory. Film surface profiles and properties,
such as surface energy, liquid-solid miscibility gap and interface thickness,
are determined as a function of misfit strains and film elastic modulus. We
analyze the stress-driven instability of film surface morphology that leads to
the formation of strained islands. We find a universal scaling relationship
between the island size and misfit strain which shows a crossover from the
well-known continuum elasticity result at the weak strain to a behavior
governed by a "perfect" lattice relaxation condition. The strain at which the
crossover occurs is shown to be a function of liquid-solid interfacial
thickness, and an asymmetry between tensile and compressive strains is
observed. The film instability is found to be accompanied by mode coupling of
the complex amplitudes of the surface morphological profile, a factor
associated with the crystalline nature of the strained film but absent in
conventional continuum theory.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.
Dynamical transitions and sliding friction of the phase-field-crystal model with pinning
We study the nonlinear driven response and sliding friction behavior of the
phase-field-crystal (PFC) model with pinning including both thermal
fluctuations and inertial effects. The model provides a continuous description
of adsorbed layers on a substrate under the action of an external driving force
at finite temperatures, allowing for both elastic and plastic deformations. We
derive general stochastic dynamical equations for the particle and momentum
densities including both thermal fluctuations and inertial effects. The
resulting coupled equations for the PFC model are studied numerically. At
sufficiently low temperatures we find that the velocity response of an
initially pinned commensurate layer shows hysteresis with dynamical melting and
freezing transitions for increasing and decreasing applied forces at different
critical values. The main features of the nonlinear response in the PFC model
are similar to the results obtained previously with molecular dynamics
simulations of particle models for adsorbed layers.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Physcial Review
Glassy phases and driven response of the phase-field-crystal model with random pinning
We study the structural correlations and the nonlinear response to a driving
force of a two-dimensional phase-field-crystal model with random pinning. The
model provides an effective continuous description of lattice systems in the
presence of disordered external pinning centers, allowing for both elastic and
plastic deformations. We find that the phase-field crystal with disorder
assumes an amorphous glassy ground state, with only short-ranged positional and
orientational correlations even in the limit of weak disorder. Under increasing
driving force, the pinned amorphous-glass phase evolves into a moving
plastic-flow phase and then finally a moving smectic phase. The transverse
response of the moving smectic phase shows a vanishing transverse critical
force for increasing system sizes
Dynamic scaling and quasi-ordered states in the two dimensional Swift-Hohenberg equation
The process of pattern formation in the two dimensional Swift-Hohenberg
equation is examined through numerical and analytic methods. Dynamic scaling
relationships are developed for the collective ordering of convective rolls in
the limit of infinite aspect ratio. The stationary solutions are shown to be
strongly influenced by the strength of noise. Stationary states for small and
large noise strengths appear to be quasi-ordered and disordered respectively.
The dynamics of ordering from an initially inhomogeneous state is very slow in
the former case and fast in the latter. Both numerical and analytic
calculations indicate that the slow dynamics can be characterized by a simple
scaling relationship, with a characteristic dynamic exponent of in the
intermediate time regime
Noise and dynamical pattern selection
In pattern forming systems such as Rayleigh-Benard convection or directional
solidification, a large number of linearly stable, patterned steady states
exist when the basic, simple steady state is unstable. Which of these steady
states will be realized in a given experiment appears to depend on unobservable
details of the system's initial conditions. We show, however, that weak,
Gaussian white noise drives such a system toward a preferred wave number which
depends only on the system parameters and is independent of initial conditions.
We give a prescription for calculating this wave number, analytically near the
onset of instability and numerically otherwise.Comment: 12 pages, REVTEX, no figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Domain Coarsening in Systems Far from Equilibrium
The growth of domains of stripes evolving from random initial conditions is
studied in numerical simulations of models of systems far from equilibrium such
as Rayleigh-Benard convection. The scaling of the size of the domains deduced
from the inverse width of the Fourier spectrum is studied for both potential
and nonpotential models. The morphology of the domains and the defect
structures are however quite different in the two cases, and evidence is
presented for a second length scale in the nonpotential case.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX; 3 uufiles encoded postscript figures appende
Ordering kinetics of stripe patterns
We study domain coarsening of two dimensional stripe patterns by numerically
solving the Swift-Hohenberg model of Rayleigh-Benard convection. Near the
bifurcation threshold, the evolution of disordered configurations is dominated
by grain boundary motion through a background of largely immobile curved
stripes. A numerical study of the distribution of local stripe curvatures, of
the structure factor of the order parameter, and a finite size scaling analysis
of the grain boundary perimeter, suggest that the linear scale of the structure
grows as a power law of time with a craracteristic exponent z=3. We interpret
theoretically the exponent z=3 from the law of grain boundary motion.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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