Two-dimensional late-stage coarsening for nucleation and growth at high-area fractions

Abstract

Numerical simulations of two-dimensional late-stage coarsening for nucleation and growth (Ostwald ripening) are performed at large-area fractions without shape restrictions. We employ efficient computational methods that allow us to study large systems. The free energy of the system we consider is composed of two different curves. Thus, the system consists of a set of isolated particles even at high-area fractions. This is totally different from the interconnected spinodal structures generated by the Cahn-Hilliard model, where the free energy is composed of a single curve. Although the domain structures are quite different, we find that the qualitative features of the structure function for both models are the same.