Phase Separation by Spinodal Decomposition in Isotropic Systems

Abstract

The theory of phase separation from a single phase fluid by a spinodal mechanism is given. The predicted structure may be described in terms of a superpositioning of sinusoidal composition modulations of a fixed wavelength, but random in amplitude, orientation, and phase. Sections through a calculated structure are shown. These show that the structure has many of the geometrical features found in phase separable glasses, in particular the high degree of connectivity among particles of each phase.