Computer simulation of late-stage growth in phase-separating binary mixtures: critical and off-critical quenches

Abstract

Critical and off-critical quenches of two-dimensional binary mixtures have been studied by a computer simulation approach. Several measures of the size and morphology of the growing structure were investigated, e.g. temporal development of correlations and cluster distributions. The morphology of the structure plays a determining role in the growth. For critical quenches, the structure grows with an exponent of 2/3, in agreement with recent theoretical work. In contrast, for off-critical quenches closed domains coarsen according to a 1/3 law, which could be explained by an evaporation-condensation mechanism.