Magnetic Field-Tuned Al-Cu Alloy

Magnetic Control of Crystal Morphology

Static magnetic fields modify solid/liquid interfacial energy anisotropy in Al-Cu alloys, enabling programmable crystal morphologies.

Huang, Chenglin · Galenko, Peter K. · Backofen, Rainer · Elder, Ken R. · Lei, Wang · Yang, Yang · Fan, Xianqiang · Lele, Chen · Fang, Luo · Zihan, Li · Jing, Dai · Fang, Yindong · Hu, Tao · Shuai, Sansan · Xuan, Weidong · Wang, Jiang · Ren, Zhongming

Acta Materialia 2026

Advantages

Magnetic field tunes anisotropy

Applied magnetic fields may introduce orientation-dependent modifications to the interfacial stiffness, thereby altering interfacial energy anisotropy and influencing crystal morphology.

Enhances twofold symmetry

In both weakly and strongly anisotropic Al-Cu interfaces, the interfacial shape exhibits enhanced twofold symmetry characteristics under applied magnetic fields, together with significant changes in equilibrium interface shape.

Experiment and model agree

The experimentally observed morphology evolution is qualitatively consistent with predictions from the magnetically coupled phase-field crystal model, supporting the proposed mechanism.

Applications

• Aluminum Alloy Casting：To control solidification microstructure and improve casting grain morphology.
• Crystal Growth：Introduces an external-field approach to program crystal morphologies.
• Directional Solidification：To influence morphology selection during directional solidification via magnetic-field-modified anisotropy.