Universal aspects of vacancy-mediated disordering dynamics: the effect of external fields

TL;DR

This paper studies how external fields influence the disordering process in binary alloys with mobile defects, revealing universal scaling behaviors and new variables that depend on the field, supported by analytical and simulation results.

Contribution

It introduces a universal scaling framework for vacancy-mediated disordering under external fields, including a new scaling variable and analytical computation of exponents.

Findings

Late-stage disordering exhibits universal dynamic scaling.

A new scaling variable associated with the external field is identified.

Analytical exponents agree with Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract

We investigate the disordering of an initially phase-segregated binary alloy, due to a highly mobile defect which couples to an electric or gravitational field. Using both mean-field and Monte Carlo methods, we show that the late stages of this process exhibit dynamic scaling, characterized by a set of exponents and scaling functions. A new scaling variable emerges, associated with the field. While the scaling functions carry information about the field and the boundary conditions, the exponents are universal. They can be computed analytically, in excellent agreement with simulation results.