2008/11/18 by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Libbrecht, Kenneth G., Helen C. Morrison +4
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0811.2994
arxiv created 2008/11/18 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a series of experiments investigating the growth of ice crystals from water vapor in the presence of a background gas. We measured growth dynamics at temperatures ranging from -2 C to -25 C, at supersaturations between 0.5 and 30 percent, and with background gases of nitrogen, argon, and air at a pressure of one bar. We compared our data with numerical models of diffusion-limited growth based on cellular automata to extract surface growth parameters at different temperatures and supersaturations. These data represent a first step toward obtaining precision ice growth measurements as a function of temperature, supersaturation, background gas pressure and gas constituents. From these investigations we hope to better understand the surface molecular dynamics that determine crystal growth rates and growth morphologies.