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Updated: Aug 12, 2025

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Microstructural Pattern Formation during Far-from-Equilibrium Alloy Solidification
Kaihua Ji1, Elaheh Dorari1, Amy J Clarke2
1Physics Department and Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Abstract:
We introduce a new phase-field formulation of rapid alloy solidification that quantitatively incorporates nonequilibrium effects at the solid-liquid interface over a very wide range of interface velocities. Simulations identify a new dynamical instability of dendrite tip growth driven by solute trapping at velocities approaching the absolute stability limit. They also reproduce the formation of the widely observed banded microstructures, revealing how this instability triggers transitions between dendritic and microsegregation-free solidification. Predicted band spacings agree quantitatively with observations in rapidly solidified Al-Cu thin films.
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