Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Motivated by a series of experiments that revealed a temperature dependence of the dynamic scaling regime of growing surfaces, we investigate theoretically how a nonequilibrium growth process reacts to a sudden change of system parameters. We discuss quenches between correlated regimes through exact expressions derived from the stochastic Edwards-Wilkinson equation with a variable diffusion constant. Our study reveals that a sudden change of the diffusion constant leads to remarkable changes in the surface roughness. Different dynamic regimes, characterized by a power-law or by an exponential relaxation, are identified, and a dynamic phase diagram is constructed. We conclude that growth processes provide one of the rare instances where quenches between correlated regimes yield a power-law relaxation.
Source: Physical Review E
Authors: Yen-Liang Chou, Michel Pleimling, R. K. P. Zia
Institution: Virginia Tech
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2052944480