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Science 27 January 1995:
Vol. 267. no. 5197, pp. 476 - 483
DOI: 10.1126/science.267.5197.476
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Articles

Domain Shapes and Patterns: The Phenomenology of Modulated Phases

Michael Seul 1 and David Andelman 2

1 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
2 School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel. Also at Section de Physique et Chimie, Institut Curie 11, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

A wide variety of two- and three-dimensional physical-chemical systems display domain patterns in equilibrium. The phenomenology of these patterns, and of the shapes of their constituent domains, is reviewed here from a point of view that interprets these patterns as a manifestation of modulated phases. These phases are stabilized by competing interactions and are characterized by periodic spatial variations of the pertinent order parameter, the corresponding modulation period generally displaying a dependence on temperature and other external fields. This simple picture provides a unifying framework to account for striking and substantial similarities revealed in the prevalent "stripe" and "bubble" morphologies as well as in commonly observed, characteristic domain-shape instabilities. Several areas of particular current interest are discussed.


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