The phase field approach was applied to the modeling of spinodal decomposition in a thin film with periodically distributed arrays of interfacial dislocations. The elastic stress field in the simultaneous presence of interfacial dislocations, substrate constraints and compositional strains was obtained by solving the mechanical equilibrium equations, using an iteration method. It was shown that the periodic stress field associated with the array of interfacial dislocations led to a directional phase separation and to the formation of ordered mesoscale microstructures. It was demonstrated that, when the periodicity of the dislocation was small, the wavelength of the ordered microstructure tended to have the same periodicity as the dislocation array. The results implied that ordered nanostructures could be produced by controlling the interfacial dislocation distribution.

Spinodal Decomposition in a Film with Periodically Distributed Interfacial Dislocations. S.Y.Hu, L.Q.Chen: Acta Materialia, 2004, 52[10], 3069-74