Planar front instabilities during directional solidification of hcp: Zn–Cd dilute alloys

The cellular and dendritic growth of Zn–Cd dilute alloys is directly influenced by crystalline orientation, the primary orientation being the 〈101¯0〉 and eventually 〈0 0 0 1〉. In general, this information is absent during the description of planar to cellular transition. However, it has been experimentally shown that the critical velocity for the stability limit, and the associated wavelength of the first instabilities, are different depending on the growth direction. In this work the stability of the accelerated planar fronts of Zn–0.01%Cd samples, obtained using a Bridgman-like device, and the behavior against morphological stability theory has been compared.