Dynamics of Late-Stage Phase Separation in Crystalline Solids

Abstract

The dynamics of Ostwald ripening in elastically stressed crystalline solids is determined through large-scale numerical simulations. Using the insight provided by the simulations, a theory for the dynamics of late-stage phase separation in elastically anisotropic homogeneous solids is developed. Both the theory and simulations show that for the systems considered elastic stress does not alter the exponent of the temporal power law for the average particle size but does affect the amplitude of the power law in a manner that is only a function of the symmetry of the particle morphology.