2006

Abstract:
The vast majority of naturally occurring or man-made solids are not in equilibrium and contain complex spatial structures on nanometer, micron or millimeter length scales. This is particularly important since these morphologies often determine the mechanical, electrical and optical properties of the material. In this talk I would like to discuss a continuum field theory approach to modeling the formation of these structures. This approach bridges the gap between conventional atomic models and continuum elasticity theory. For illustrative purposes a number of applications will be considered including liquid phase epitaxial growth, spinodal decomposition, eutectic solidification, dendritic growth and material hardness.

References:

1. Elder, Katakowski, Haataja and Grant, Modeling Elasticity in Crystal Growth, Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 88, 245701 (2002).
2. Elder and Grant, Modeling elastic and plastic deformations in nonequilibrium processing using phase field crystals, Phys. Rev. E vol. 70, 051605 (2004).
3. Berry, Grant and Elder, Diffusive atomistic dynamics of edge dislocations in two dimensions, Phys. Rev. E vol. 73, 031609 (2006)
4. Achim, Karttunen, Elder, Granato, Ala-Nissila and Ying, Phase Diagram and Commensurate-Incommensurate Transitions in the Phase Field Crystal Model with an External Pinning Potential Phys. Rev. E vol. 74, 021104 (2006)
5. Elder, Provatas, Berry, Stefanovic and Grant, cond-mat/0607419