Formation of metastable phases by spinodal decomposition

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the spontaneous formation of metastable phases via spinodal decomposition in colloidal crystals, revealing new phase-ordering phenomena and control over metastable domain properties, broadening understanding in materials science.

Contribution

It introduces the experimental realization of spinodal decomposition leading to metastable phases within the landscape-inversion phase transition framework.

Findings

Observation of transient coexistence of stable and metastable phases.

Control over sizes and lifetimes of metastable domains.

Discovery of new phase-ordering phenomena in colloidal crystals.

Abstract

Metastable 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.