Kinetics of crossover in phase-separating liquid mixtures induced by finite-size effects

Classically, wetting phenomena prevent any experimental analysis of the intrinsic kinetics of phase-separating liquids in reduced geometry. We investigate this issue using a cw laser wave to quench a liquid mixture inside the beam (absence of wetting) and to trap the generated droplets (absence of droplet Bow). The Gaussian wave behaves as a box with ''soft walls'' in which the diffusional growth of a single droplet can be analyzed during the crossover between the bulk behavior and its modification induced by finite-size effects. The resulting slowing down is reported and a. model which describes these behaviors is presented.