Dresden 2009 – scientific programme
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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik
MM 23: Topical Session Heterogeneous Nucleation and Initial Evolution of Microstructure - Poster
MM 23.9: Poster
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 14:45–16:30, P4
Derivation of the phase field crystal model for colloidal solidification — •Sven van Teeffelen1, Rainer Backofen2, Axel Voigt2, and Hartmut Löwen1 — 1Institute for Theoretical Physics II: Soft Matter, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf — 2Institute of Scientific Computing, Technical University Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
The phase-field crystal model is by now widely used in order to predict crystal nucleation and growth. For colloidal solidification with completely overdamped individual particle motion, we show that the phase-field crystal dynamics can be derived from the microscopic Smoluchowski equation via dynamical density functional theory. The different underlying approximations are discussed. In particular, a variant of the phase-field crystal model is proposed which involves less approximations than the standard phase field crystal model. We finally test the validity of these phase-field crystal models against dynamical density functional theory. In particular, the velocities of a linear crystal front from the undercooled melt are compared as a function of the undercooling for a two-dimensional colloidal suspension of parallel dipoles. Good agreement is only obtained by a drastic scaling of the free energies in the phase field crystal model in order to match the bulk freezing transition point.