Morphological characterization of spinodal decomposition kinetics

The time evolution of the morphology of homogeneous phases during spinodal decomposition is described using a family of morphological measures known as Minkowski functionals. They provide the characteristic length scale L of patterns in a convenient, statistically robust, and computationally inexpensive way. They also allow one to study the scaling behavior of the content, shape, and connectivity of spatial structures and to define the crossover from the early stage decomposition to the late stage domain growth. We observe the scaling behavior L ∼ t with α = 2/3, α = 1/2, and α = 1/3 depending on the viscosity of the fluid. When approaching the spinodal density ρsp, we recover the prediction L ∼ (ρ− ρsp) −1/2 for the early time spinodal decomposition. PACS. 05.70.Fh Phase transitions: general aspects – 64.60.-i General studies of phase transitions – 47.20.Hw Morphological instability; phase changes