Morphological instability of vapour-grown ice crystals: SEM investigations

Abstract

The morphological stability of ice crystals freely grown from the vapour was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy. The replica method was used. The onset of morphological instability was observed on different faces of plate-like and column-like ice crystals obtained at temperatures from -1 to -12°C. The smaller ice crystals were growing stably. It was established that the instability of the bigger crystals begins to develop from the face with the largest growth rate. For plate-like crystals this is the prismatic face, and in the case of column-like crystals this is the basal face. This experimental result is in agreement with the theoretical prediction of Chernov and with the numerical calculations of Irisawa, Kuroda and Ookawa.