Crossover from 3D Ising to Isotropic Lifshitz Critical Behavior in a Mixture of a Homopolymer Blend and Diblock Copolymer

Dietmar Schwahn; Kell Mortensen; Henrich Frielinghaus; Kristoffer Almdal

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.5056

Crossover from 3D Ising to Isotropic Lifshitz Critical Behavior in a Mixture of a Homopolymer Blend and Diblock Copolymer

Dietmar Schwahn, Kell Mortensen, Henrich Frielinghaus, and Kristoffer Almdal

Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 5056 – Published 21 June 1999

Abstract

Thermal composition fluctuations and the associated crossover from the 3D Ising to the isotropic Lifshitz universality class have been studied in a three component mixture made of a critical polymer blend and the corresponding diblock copolymer. The critical exponents were found to be appreciably larger than those of the 3D Ising, in agreement with expectations from the larger upper critical dimension. Very near the critical temperature a crossover to a renormalized Lifshitz critical behavior was observed possibly caused by fluctuation induced rearrangements of the diblock copolymers.

Received 5 November 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.5056

Authors & Affiliations

Dietmar Schwahn¹, Kell Mortensen², Henrich Frielinghaus^1,2, and Kristoffer Almdal²

¹Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
²Condensed Matter Physics and Chemistry Department, Risø National Laboratory, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark