Observations of an Impurity-driven Hysteresis Behavior in Ice Crystal Growth at Low Pressure

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of impurity-driven hysteresis in ice crystal growth at low pressure, revealing a growth instability that can produce clean, faceted ice surfaces, with implications for understanding ice formation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel impurity-driven hysteresis phenomenon in ice growth under near-vacuum conditions, expanding knowledge of ice surface dynamics.

Findings

Hysteresis occurs above a certain supersaturation threshold.

Impurity-driven instability causes sudden growth rate increases.

Potential to produce clean faceted ice surfaces.

Abstract

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.