Beyond the Ginzburg-Landau theory of freezing: Anisotropy of the interfacial free energy in the Phase-Field Crystal model

TL;DR

This study analytically determines the anisotropy of interfacial free energy in the Phase-Field Crystal model, linking it to Ginzburg-Landau theory, and explores calibration pathways for anisotropic models.

Contribution

It analytically derives the anisotropy of interfacial free energy in the PFC model and connects it to weakly 4th order anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theories, highlighting material-independent anisotropy.

Findings

Anisotropy remains finite at the critical point due to one-mode dominance.

The leading order PFC amplitude model is formally analogous to traditional GL theories.

The reduced temperature does not affect interfacial free energy anisotropy for metals.

Abstract

This paper re-visits the weakly fourth order anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory of freezing. First we determine the anisotropy of the interfacial free energy in the Phase-Field Crystal (PFC) model analytically, and prove that it remains finite at the critical point as a direct consequence of the one-mode dominance of the model. Next, we derive the leading order PFC amplitude model and show the formal analogy to traditional weakly 4th order anisotropic GL theories. We conclude that the material-independent anisotropy appearing in emergent GL theory coincides with the remnant anisotropy of the generating PFC model. As a result, we show that the reduced temperature {\epsilon} does not enter into the interfacial free energy anisotropy for metallic materials in both the Phase-Field Crystal model and the emerging Ginzburg-Landau theories. Finally, we investigate the possible pathways of calibrating anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theories.