Formation of metastable phases by spinodal decomposition

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13067
• Publication Date: 2016-10-07T09:18:30Z
• Authors: Ricard Alert; Pietro Tierno; Jaume Casademunt
• Keywords: Col·loides; Condensed Matter - Materials Science; Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Science; Q; Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); FOS: Physical sciences; 02 engineering and technology; Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter; Article; Transformacions de fase (Física estadística); Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft); Colloids; Statistical physics; 0210 nano-technology; Phase transformations (Statistical physics); Física estadística; Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics

AbstractMetastable phases may be spontaneously formed from other metastable phases through nucleation. Here we demonstrate the spontaneous formation of a metastable phase from an unstable equilibrium by spinodal decomposition, which leads to a transient coexistence of stable and metastable phases. This phenomenon is generic within the recently introduced scenario of the landscape-inversion phase transitions, which we experimentally realize as a structural transition in a colloidal crystal. This transition exhibits a rich repertoire of new phase-ordering phenomena, including the coexistence of two equilibrium phases connected by two physically different interfaces. In addition, this scenario enables the control of sizes and lifetimes of metastable domains. Our findings open a new setting that broadens the fundamental understanding of phase-ordering kinetics, and yield new prospects of applications in materials science.