Heterogeneous nucleation of a droplet pinned at a chemically inhomogeneous substrate: A simulation study of the two-dimensional Ising case.

Heterogeneous nucleation is studied by Monte Carlo simulations and phenomenological theory, using the two-dimensional lattice gas model with suitable boundary fields. A chemical inhomogeneity of length b at one boundary favors the liquid phase, while elsewhere the vapor is favored. Switching on the bulk field H favoring the liquid, nucleation and growth of the liquid phase starting from the region of the chemical inhomogeneity are analyzed.

Numerical evidence of hyperscaling violation in wetting transitions of the random-bond Ising model in d=2 dimensions.

We performed extensive simulations of the random-bond Ising model confined between walls where competitive surface fields act. By properly taking the thermodynamic limit we unambiguously determined wetting transition points of the system, as extrapolation of localization-delocalization transitions of the interface between domains of different orientation driven by the respective fields. The finite-size scaling theory for wetting with short-range fields [E.

Droplets pinned at chemically inhomogenous substrates: A simulation study of the two-dimensional Ising case.

As a simplified model of a liquid nanostripe adsorbed on a chemically structured substrate surface, a two-dimensional Ising system with two boundaries at which surface fields act is studied. At the upper boundary, the surface field is uniformly negative, while at the lower boundary (a distance L apart), the surface field is negative only outside a range of extension b, where a positive surface stabilizes a droplet of the phase with positive magnetization for temperatures T exceeding the critical temperature T_{w} of the wetting transition of this model. We investigate the local order parameter profiles across the droplet, both in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the substrate, varying both b and T.

Tricritical wetting in the two-dimensional Ising magnet due to the presence of localized non-magnetic impurities.

Fixed vacancies (non-magnetic impurities) are placed along the centre of Ising strips in order to study the wetting behaviour in this confined system, by means of numerical simulations analysed with the aid of finite size scaling and thermodynamic integration methods. By considering strips of size L × M (L << M) where short-range competitive surface fields (H(s)) act along the M-direction, we observe localization-delocalization transitions of the interface between magnetic domains of different orientation (driven by the corresponding surface fields), which are the precursors of the wetting transitions that occur in the thermodynamic limit. By placing vacancies or equivalently non-magnetic impurities along the centre of the sample, we found that for low vacancy densities the wetting transitions are of second order, while by increasing the concentration of vacancies the transitions become of first order.

First-order and tricritical wetting transitions in the two-dimensional Ising model caused by interfacial pinning at a defect line.

We present a study of the critical behavior of the Blume-Capel model with three spin states (S=±1,0) confined between parallel walls separated by a distance L where competitive surface magnetic fields act. By properly choosing the crystal field (D), which regulates the density of nonmagnetic species (S=0), such that those impurities are excluded from the bulk (where D=-∞) except in the middle of the sample [where D(M)(L/2)≠-∞], we are able to control the presence of a defect line in the middle of the sample and study its influence on the interface between domains of different spin orientations. So essentially we study an Ising model with a defect line but, unlike previous work where defect lines in Ising models were defined via weakened bonds, in the present case the defect line is due to mobile vacancies and hence involves additional entropy.

Influence of nonuniform surface magnetic fields in wetting transitions in a confined two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet.

Wetting transitions are studied in the two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet confined between walls where competitive surface fields act. In our finite samples of size L×M, the walls are separated by a distance L, M being the length of the sample. The surface fields are taken to be short-range and nonuniform, i.