Nonequilibrium Structure during Phase Separation

Abstract

To establish the nature of the early-stage structures that occur during phase separation, we studied solutions of a nonionic surfactant micellar solution (${\mathrm{C}}_{12}$ ${\mathrm{E}}_6$ in ${\mathrm{D}}_2$O). We report the existence of long-lived nonequilibrium structures during shallow quenches along the critical isochore. The power-law scattering profile of these structures is consistent with ramified clusters with a fractal dimension $D=1.6\mathrm{}\pm 0.1$.