title: Solid-liquid surface tensions of critical nuclei and nucleation barriers from a phase-field-crystal study of a model binary alloy using finite system sizes.
abstract: Phase-field-crystal (PFC) modeling has emerged as a computationally efficient tool to address crystal growth phenomena on atomistic length and diffusive time scales. We use a two-dimensional phase-field-crystal model for a binary system based on Elder et al. [Phys. Rev. B 75, 064107 (2007)] to study critical nuclei and their liquid-solid phase boundaries, in particular the nucleus size dependence of the liquid-solid interface tension as well as of the nucleation barrier. Critical nuclei are stabilized in finite systems of various sizes, however, the extracted interface tension as function of the nucleus radius r is independent of system size. We suggest a phenomenological expression to describe the dependence of the extracted interface tension on the nucleus radius r for the liquid-solid system. Moreover, the numerical PFC results show that this dependency can not be fully described by the nonclassical Tolman formula.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Material- und Prozesssimulation, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Muhammad Ajmal
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Choudhary
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Material- und Prozesssimulation, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kundin
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Material- und Prozesssimulation, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Emmerich
authors.affiliation: Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Tübingen, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oettel
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D044367:Phase Transition; D013500:Surface Tension
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys