Abstract
Rapid temperature quenches have long been known to produce metastable thermodynamic phases. We study Landau-Ginzburg models of phase transitions for free energies having three local minima and show that metastable phases can be formed via a dynamic instability that splits the front separating the stable high- and low-temperature phases. Even though quenching may nucleate the stable phase, the splitting instability we discuss will favor the formation of the metastable phase.
- Received 21 March 1991
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.67.1266
©1991 American Physical Society