Xianglei Dong

Degenerate seaweed to tilted dendrite transition and their growth dynamics in directional solidification of non-axially oriented crystals: a phase-field study.

We report the results of a phase-field study of degenerate seaweed to tilted dendrite transition and their growth dynamics during directional solidification of a binary alloy. Morphological selection maps in the planes of (G, Vp) and (ε4, Vp) show that lower pulling velocity, weaker anisotropic strength and higher thermal gradient can enhance the formation of the degenerate seaweed. The tip undercooling shows oscillations in seaweed growth, but it keeps at a constant value in dendritic growth. The M-S instability on the tips and the surface tension anisotropy of the solid-liquid interface are responsible for the formation of the degenerate seaweed. It is evidenced that the place where the interfacial instability occurs determines the morphological transition. The transient transition from degenerate seaweed to tilted dendrite shows that dendrites are dynamically preferred over seaweed. For the tilted dendritic arrays with a large tilted angle, primary spacing is investigated by comparing predicted results with the classical scaling power law, and the growth direction is found to be less sensitive to the pulling velocity and the primary spacing. Furthermore, the effect of the initial interface wavelength on the morphological transition is investigated to perform the history dependence of morphological selection.

Photocarrier transport and dynamics in mixed-phase BiFeO 3 films.

We report a remarkable photoinduced relaxation process and its dependence of thickness and temperature in mixed-phase BiFeO3 films grown on (001) LaAlO3 substrates. When the films are illuminated by the light above the bandgap, their resistances are reduced with the increase of temperature. The photoinduced change of resistance reaches to the maximum of about 2.17 × 105% at 300 K. It is noted that the relaxation processes of the resistance are significantly different between T-like phase and T-R mixed phase due to structural strain, symmetry breaking and built-in electric field at the phase boundaries. These results provide more insights into intrinsic mechanisms of mixed-phase multiferroic materials and potential applications in all-oxide photoelectric devices.

Phase-field modeling of growth pattern selections in three-dimensional channels

In this paper, the anisotropic crystal growth in three-dimensional channels was studied using a thin-interface phase-field model. Different growth modes and dynamics behaviours, including planar front, stationary symmetrical single finger, oscillatory symmetrical single finger and multiple-finger structure, have been observed as the undercooling is increased. Lower boundary of undercooling for symmetrical single finger results from the tip-widening while the upper boundary results from the tip-splitting instability. Results show that the existence range of the symmetrical single finger depends on crystalline anisotropy, channel size and dimensionality. Moreover, an oscillatory instability, involving tip velocity and tip radius oscillations, was evidenced when the undercooling is close to but below the upper boundary. We found that the oscillatory symmetrical single finger strongly depends on the channel size and the crystalline anisotropy. Mechanism of the oscillatory mode has been discussed in details.

Temperature dependent transport and photoresponse properties of a Mn-doped ZnO/p-Si heterojunction

A Mn-doped ZnO (ZMO) thin film was deposited on a p-Si (100) substrate by magnetron sputtering technology. The structure and morphology of the film were tested by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The temperature dependent transport and photoresponse properties of the ZMO/Si heterojunction were also investigated. Results show that the ZMO film was successfully deposited in the polycrystalline structure with a smooth and crack-free surface. The current–voltage (I–V) curves show that the heterojunction exhibits excellent rectifying behavior. As temperature is decreased, the ideality factor of the heterojunction becomes remarkably large, implying a significant change of transport mechanism with differing temperatures. Photocurrent can emerge by illumination. Under reverse bias, the photocurrent increases drastically with the increase of reverse bias and then becomes saturated beyond a certain voltage. In addition, the critical voltage increases with the increase of temperature.

Orientation Dependence of Columnar Dendritic Growth with Sidebranching Behaviors in Directional Solidification: Insights from Phase-Field Simulations

In this study, a thin-interface phase-field model was employed to study the orientation dependence of the columnar dendritic growth with sidebranching behaviors in directional solidification. It was found that the dimensionless tip undercooling increases with the increase of misorientation angle for three pulling velocities. The primary spacing is found to be a function of misorientation angle, and the dimensionless primary spacing with respect to the misorientation angle follows the orientation correction given by Gandin and Rappaz (Acta. Metall. 42:2233–2246, 1994). For the analysis of the dendritic tip, the two-dimensional (2-D) form of the nonaxisymmetric needle crystal was used to determine the radius of the tilted columnar dendrite. Based on the definitions of open side and constrained side of the dendrite, the analysis of the width active sidebranches and the dendritic area in 2-D with respect to the distance from the dendritic tip was carried out to investigate the asymmetrical dendrite envelop and sidebranching behaviors on the two sides in directional solidification. The obtained prefactor and exponent with respect to misorientation angle are discussed, showing that the sidebranching behaviors of a tilted columnar dendritic array obey a similar power-law relationship with that of a free dendritic growth.

Current development in quantitative phase-field modeling of solidification

The quantitative phase-field simulations were reviewed on the processes of solidification of pure metals and alloys. The quantitative phase-field equations were treated in a diffuse thin-interface limit, which enabled the quantitative links between interface dynamics and model parameters in the quasi-equilibrium simulations. As a result, the quantitative modeling is more effective in dealing with microstructural pattern formation in the large scale simulations without any spurious kinetic effects. The development of the quantitative phase-field models in modeling the formation of microstructures such as dendritic structures, eutectic lamellas, seaweed morphologies, and grain boundaries in different solidified conditions was also reviewed with the purpose of guiding to find the new prospect of applications in the quantitative phase-field simulations.

The Frustration-induced Ferroelectricity of a Manganite Tricolor Superlattice with Artificially Broken Symmetry

In this paper, [(La0.9Sr0.1MnO3)n/(Pa0.9Ca0.1MnO3)n/(La0.9Sb0.1MnO3)n]m superlattices films have been deposited on (001) Nb:SrTiO3 substrates by a laser molecular-beam epitaxy technology. Expected ferroelectricity arise at well-defined tricolor superlattice at low temperature, composed of transition metal manganite, which is absent in the single-phase compounds. Furthermore, the ferroelectric properties of the superlattices are enhanced by increasing the periodicity m, which may be attributed to the accumulation of the polarization induced by the frustration. As for the magnetic hysteresis loop characteristics of the multilayer structures, the saturation magnetization and magnetic coercivity of films present definitely a strong periodic dependence. It also indicates that the frustration may exist in the tricolor superlattice. Our results further verify the previous theoretical research of generating multiferroics experimentally paving a way for designing or developing the novel magnetoelectric devices based on manganite ferromagnets.

Emergent ferroelectricity in disordered tri-color multilayer structure comprised of ferromagnetic manganites*

Multiferroic materials, showing the coexistence and coupling of ferroelectric and magnetic orders, are of great technological and fundamental importance. However, the limitation of single phase multiferroics with robust magnetization and polarization hinders the magnetoelectric effect from being applied practically. Magnetic frustration, which can induce ferroelectricity, gives rise to multiferroic behavior. In this paper, we attempt to construct an artificial magnetically frustrated structure comprised of manganites to induce ferroelectricity. A disordered stacking of manganites is expected to result in frustration at interfaces. We report here that a tri-color multilayer structure comprised of non-ferroelectric La0.9Ca0.1MnO3(A)/Pr0.85Ca0.15MnO3(B)/Pr0.85Sr0.15MnO3(C) layers with the disordered arrangement of ABC–ACB–CAB–CBA–BAC–BCA is prepared to form magnetoelectric multiferroics. The multilayer film exhibits evidence of ferroelectricity at room temperature, thus presenting a candidate for multiferroics.