Morphological instabilities in time periodic crystallization

A linear stability analysis is performed on the interface that forms during directional solidification of a dilute binary alloy in the presence of time-periodic growth rates. The basic state, in which the flat crystal-melt interface advances at a steady rate with an oscillation superimposed, is solved analytically by expanding the governing equations in terms of the assumed-small amplitude of modulation. We find that there is a frequency window of stabilization, in which the Mullins-Sekerka instability can be stabilized synchronously. Outside of the window, large input frequencies may destabilize the Mullins-Sekerka mode. The subharmonic mode, which occurs with small wave numbers, is stabilized with increasing the frequency. As for the modulation amplitude, larger amplitude tends to reduce the synchronous mode while enhance the subharmonic mode.