As a nonlinear optical system consisting of a Kerr medium inserted in a feedback loop is exposed to a light intensity growing linearly from below to above the threshold for pattern formation, the critical slowing down around threshold freezes the defect population. The measured number of defects immediately after the transition scales with the quench time as predicted by Zurek for a two-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model. The further temporal evolution of the defect number is in agreement with a simple annihilation model, once the drift of defects specific for our system is taken into account.

Spin coating is an out-of-equilibrium technique for producing polymer films and colloidal crystals quickly and reproducibly. In this review, we present an overview of theoretical and experimental studies of the spin coating of colloidal suspensions. The dynamics of the spin coating process is discussed first, and we present insights from both theory and experiment. A key difference between spin coating with polymer solutions and with monodisperse colloidal suspensions is the emergence of long range (centimeter scale) orientational correlations in the latter. We discuss experiments in different physical regimes that shed light on the many unusual partially ordered structures that have long-range orientational order, but no long-range translational order. The nature of these structures can be tailored by adding electric or magnetic fields during the spin coating procedure. These partially ordered structures can be considered as model systems for studying the fundamentals of poorly crystalline and defect-rich solids, and they can also serve as templates for patterned and/or porous optical and magnetic materials.

We describe the evolution of a water drop saturated with NaCl and the growth of pure water droplets in a breath figure pattern (BF) condensing around it. This salty drop acts as a humidity sink, inhibiting the BF inside a ring at a distance $r=$\delta${}$ from the sink center and slowing down BF growth outside the ring. The initial salty drop is taken either from a salt-saturated solution (type I experiment) or by placing an NaCl crystal on the substrate (type II experiment). The results are similar, provided that the initial time for type II evolution is taken at the end of the crystal dissolution. The evolution of the salty drop radius $R$ is deduced from the establishment of a three-dimensional hyperbolic concentration profile around the salty drop. This profile scales with $r/$\delta${}$. Accounting for the salt concentration decrease with salty drop growth, $R$ is seen to grow as ${t}^{5}$. In the region $r>$\delta${}$, water droplets nucleate and grow. The rate of evolution of the water droplets at constant $r/$\delta${}$ can be used to determine the local water pressure. The corresponding data reasonably agree with a hyperbolic water vapor profile around the salty drop. These results can be applied to the growth of BF patterns to determine whether hyperbolic or linear water vapor profiles apply.