Institute of Metals Division - Cellular Substructure in Zn Crystals Grown from the Melt (TN)

CELLULAR substructure observed in metal crystals grown from the melt. has been studied extensively'-' and is attributed to the existence of a constitutionally supercooled zone in the liquid ahead of the solidifying interface. The mathematical description of this process has been given in terms of the concentration of solute in the liquid phase, the rate of solidification, and the temperature gradien.t in the liquid as the only variables.5 This technical note presents some evidence of 1) the effect of crystal orientation on some aspects of cellular growth, and 2:) the degeneracy of these cells into dislocation arrays. The zinc single crystals used in these studies were alloyed with cadmium sufficient to produce the constitutional supercooled cellular substructure. Crystals containing 0.05 pct Cd exhibited substructure formation for a growth rate of 10 cm per hr and a temperature gradient of 15°C per cm in accord with the theory. The growing liquid-solid interface was examined after we liquid had been decanted away in a fashion similar to that described by Rutter and Chamers.' The cellular substructure was also observed after polishing and etching the surface directly behind the decanted interface with a solution of HNO, and water. Fig. 1 is a photomicrograph of a typical polished and etched surface revealing substructure, the cleavage plane, and twins. The crystal has been grown with its basal plane parallel to the direction of growth and the plane of the micrograph is per-