Domain growth and freezing on a triangular lattice

Abstract

We have performed Monte Carlo simulations of domain growth at zero temperature of a lattice gas with nearest-neighbor repulsive interactions on a triangular lattice. Kawasaki dynamics were used with a fractional surface coverage of one-third. We studied both the case in which the second-nearest-neighbor interaction is attractive and the case in which it is zero. The effect of increasing the range of allowed hops from nearest neighbor to third nearest neighbor was investigated. We find that domain growth freezes in the case in which the second-nearest-neighbor interaction is attractive and only nearest-neighbor hops are allowed. Domain freezing is released when longer-range hops are allowed or when the second-nearest-neighbor interaction is zero. Allowing only nearest-neighbor hops, the growth exponent when there is no second-nearest-neighbor interaction is consistent with the Lifshitz-Slyozov theory. We conclude that the range of particle hops is an important parameter to consider when classifying growth kinetics.