Capillary to bulk crossover of nonequilibrium fluctuations in the free diffusion of a near--critical binary liquid mixture

Abstract

We have studied the nonequilibrium fluctuations occurring at the interface between two miscible phases of a near-critical binary mixture during a free diffusion process. The small-angle static scattered intensity is the superposition of nonequilibrium contributions due to capillary waves and to bulk fluctuations. A linearized hydrodynamics description of the fluctuations allows us to isolate the two contributions, and to determine an effective surface tension for the nonequilibrium interface. As the diffuse interface thickness increases, we observe the cross-over of the capillary-wave contribution to the bulk one.