The Kinetics of Nucleation at the Eutectic Point
and the Mechanism of Domain Structure Formation

S. A. Kukushkin and A. V. Osipov

Institute of Problems in Machine Science, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Vasil’evskii Ostrov, Bol’shoi pr. 61, St. Petersburg, 199178 Russia

E-mail: oav@fhase.ipme.ru

Abstract—A phenomenological theory of nucleation at the eutectic point was constructed on the basis of the
Ginzburg–Landau approach. The principal system of equations for the kinetics of nucleation was derived; the
system comprised two equations, one describing the evolution of the density of a substance, and the other the
evolution of the composition. The first equation determined the growth of new phase nuclei and was similar to
the equation for the formation of a one-component nucleus. The second equation was similar to the nonlinear
spinodal decomposition equation; it described the decay of an unstable homogeneous state of the dense phase
and the formation of a domain structure. The source of composition instability was the density gradient at the
boundary of a nucleus. The formation of a domain structure in a two-component eutectic van der Waals liquid
was studied as a particular example.

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