On the energy of the interface between a melt and quasicrystalline and polytetrahedral phases

Experiments on the undercooling of Al-based alloys show a dependence of the maximum undercooling on the structure of the primarily nucleating phase. To model the interfacial energy of the different phases a numerical method was employed, which is based on a model originally developed to estimate the interfacial energy between a melt and cubic phases. Here, it is extended to the polytetrahedral phases Al13Fe4, Al5Fe2 and to the icosahedral quasicrystalline I-phase in Al-Pd-Mn. The numerically estimated solid-liquid interfacial energies are in agreement with experimental results as inferred from undercooling data. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.