Figure 1

Variation of the free energy per unit area $\left(\Delta G\right)$ and spinodal parameter $\left({\partial }^2\Delta G/\partial h^2\right)$ with film thickness ($h$). $R=-0.1$ and $\delta$ is 5 nm. The thickness of the equilibrium flat film phase is given by $h_m$. Films of mean film thickness greater than $h_c$ are spinodally unstable. Even though thinner films with $h_c>h>h_m$ are spinodally stable, they can be made unstable through nucleation.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

Early, late, and intermediate stages of phase separation in a supported thin film. The dotted, solid, and dashed lines refer to nondimensional times 0.6, 15, and 760 (top), $23000$, $200000$, and $700000$ (middle), 2310, 2550, and 2725 (bottom). The parameters are $R=-0.1$ and $D=0.5$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

Variation of the number of hills (solid line) with nondimensional time for a system size of $2048L_M$. The filled dots show the number of periods as given by the dominant wavelength from Fourier analysis of the film profile. The dash-dot line represents the results of the linearized version of Eq. (2). Dotted lines with slopes of $-1/4$ and $-1/3$ are presented to facilitate comparison with the exponents for the early and the late stage, respectively. The parameters are $R=-0.1$ and $D=0.5$. The solid horizontal line represents the number of hills corresponding to the dominant spinodal wavelength as given by linear theory result of Eq. (4). The two vertical dashed lines demarcate the early, intermediate and late stages. The dashed line on the far left shows results for nucleation in a spinodally stable film ($R=-0.1$ and $D=1$ or $h_0=5nm$, see Fig. 1).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

Variation of the interfacial free energy ($F_i$, dotted curve), excess free energy ($F_e$, dashed curve) and total free energy ($F_s$, solid curve) with nondimensional time. The vertical dashed-dotted line in the top frame, which marks the maximum value of $F_i$, signifies the end of the intermediate stage and onset of the late stage of phase separation. The bottom frame shows the magnified view of the three energies in the early stage. The parameters are $R=-0.1$ and $D=0.5$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 5

Master curves in $d=2$ and 3 for variation of number density of hills with the evolution coordinate in the early stage. The dashed lines present results for the linearized version of Eq. (2) for $d=2$ and 3. We superpose data for a wide range of potential and parameters, as described in the text. Dotted lines with slopes $-1/4$ and $-1/3$ are shown to facilitate comparison with early stage exponents for $d=2$ and 3, respectively. The inset shows the variation of minimum thickness with $T$ which is used in defining the evolution coordinate.Reuse & Permissions