LIFSHITZ-SLYOZOV SCALING FOR LATE-STAGE COARSENING WITH AN ORDER-PARAMETER-DEPENDENT MOBILITY

The coarsening dynamics of the Cahn-Hilliard equation with order-parameter-dependent mobility, lambda(phi) proportional to(1-phi(2))(alpha), is addressed at zero temperature in the Lifshitz-Slyozov limit where the minority phase occupies a vanishingly small volume fraction. Despite the absence of bulk diffusion for alpha>0, the mean domain size is found to grow as [R]proportional to t(1/(3+alpha)), due to subdiffusive transport of the order parameter through the majority phase. The domain-size distribution is determined explicitly for the physically relevant case alpha=1.