The Lamellar-Disorder Interface : One-Dimensional Modulated Profiles

TL;DR

This paper analytically examines the interfacial structure between lamellar and disordered phases near a tricritical point, revealing wide interfacial regions and confirming results with numerical methods.

Contribution

It provides systematic analytical expansions for the lamellar-disorder interface profile near a tricritical point, applicable to systems with one-dimensional symmetry.

Findings

Analytical interfacial profiles characterized by wide regions.

Good agreement with numerical minimization schemes.

Interfacial energy aligns with mean field tricritical scaling laws.

Abstract

We study interfacial behavior of a lamellar (stripe) phase coexisting with a disordered phase. Systematic analytical expansions are obtained for the interfacial profile in the vicinity of a tricritical point. They are characterized by a wide interfacial region involving a large number of lamellae. Our analytical results apply to systems with one dimensional symmetry in true thermodynamical equilibrium and are of relevance to metastable interfaces between lamellar and disordered phases in two and three dimensions. In addition, good agreement is found with numerical minimization schemes of the full free energy functional having the same one dimensional symmetry. The interfacial energy for the lamellar to disordered transition is obtained in accord with mean field scaling laws of tricritical points.