A mean field approach of nucleation

T. Philippe (1) , D. Blavette (2)

1 PMC - Physique de la Matière Condensée
2 GPM - Groupe de physique des matériaux

The nucleation pathway in binary solid solution was investigated using mean field theory coupled to the string method. The string method has been used to locate the minimum free energy pathway for thermally activated nucleation, i.e. the most probable path for the phase transition. The overall behaviour of the system and the properties of the nucleus, composition and size were found to be in good agreement with other non-classical nucleation theories. It was found that the size of the critical nucleus diverges near the spinodal line. \textcopyright 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mots clés: Mean field; Minimum free energy path; Nucleation; String method

Domaines: Physique [physics]

T. Philippe, D. Blavette. A mean field approach of nucleation. Scripta Materialia, 2012, 67 (1), pp.77--80. ⟨10.1016/j.scriptamat.2012.03.025⟩. ⟨hal-01928867⟩