Corner wetting in a far-from-equilibrium magnetic growth model

TL;DR

This paper investigates a nonequilibrium magnetic growth model in three dimensions, revealing a corner wetting transition analogous to equilibrium phenomena, characterized through phase diagrams and finite-size scaling.

Contribution

It introduces a nonequilibrium realization of corner wetting transitions in a magnetic growth model, extending understanding of interface phenomena beyond equilibrium systems.

Findings

Identification of a localization-delocalization transition of the interface.

Quantitative phase diagram for the nonequilibrium corner wetting transition.

Extrapolation of finite-size results to the thermodynamic limit.

Abstract

The irreversible growth of magnetic films is studied in three-dimensional confined geometries of size $L\times L\times M$, where $M\gg L$ is the growing direction. Competing surface magnetic fields, applied to opposite corners of the growing system, lead to the observation of a localization-delocalization (weakly rounded) transition of the interface between domains of up and down spins on the planes transverse to the growing direction. This effective transition is the precursor of a true far-from-equilibrium corner wetting transition that takes place in the thermodynamic limit. The phenomenon is characterized quantitatively by drawing a magnetic field-temperature phase diagram, firstly for a confined sample of finite size, and then by extrapolating results, obtained with samples of different size, to the thermodynamic limit. The results of this work are a nonequilibrium realization of analogous phenomena recently investigated in equilibrium systems, such as corner wetting transitions in the Ising model.