title: Morphology-dependent crossover effects in heterogeneous nucleation of peritectic materials studied via the phase-field method for Al-Ni.
abstract: The application of phase-field modeling to nucleation as a phenomenon at the nanoscale is justified, if one takes into account the great success of continuum approaches in nanofluidics as proven by the many comparisons to experiments. Employed in this manner it provides an approach allowing us to account for effects of the physical diffuseness of a nucleus' interface and thereby go beyond classical nucleation theory (Gránásy and James 2000 J. Chem. Phys. 113 9810; Emmerich and Siquieri 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18 11121). Here we extend the focus of previous work in this field and address the question of how far the phase-field method can also be applied to gain further insight into nucleation statistics, in particular the nucleation prefactor appearing in the nucleation rate. In this context we describe in detail a morphology-dependent crossover effect noticeable for the nucleation rate at small driving forces.
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Engineering Science and Institute of Minerals Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, D-52056 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Siquieri
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Emmerich