2008/09/28 by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Libbrecht, Kenneth G. · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Icing and De-icing Technologies #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Solidification and crystal growth phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0809.4863
arxiv created 2008/09/28 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We describe observations of a novel hysteresis behavior in the growth of ice crystals under near-vacuum conditions. Above a threshold supersaturation, we find that the ice growth rate often exhibits a sudden increase that we attribute to an impurity-driven growth instability. We examine possible mechanisms for this instability, which can be used to produce clean, faceted ice surfaces.