Role of spall in microstructure evolution during laser-shock-driven rapid undercooling and resolidification

We previously reported [Colvin et al., J. Appl. Phys. 101, 084906 (2007)] on the microstructure morphology of pure Bi metal subjected to rapid laser-shock-driven melting and subsequent resolidification upon release of pressure, where the estimated effective undercooling rates were of the order of 109–1010 K/s. More recently, we repeated these experiments, but with a Bi/Zn alloy (Zn atomic fraction of 2%–4%) instead of elemental Bi and with a change in target design to suppress spall in the Bi/Zn samples. We observed a similar microstructure morphology in the two sets of experiments, with initially columnar grains recrystallizing to larger equiaxed grains. The Bi samples, however, exhibited micron-scale dendrites on the spall surfaces, whereas there were no dendritic structures anywhere in the nonspalled Bi/Zn, even down to the nanometer scale as observed by transmission electron microscopy. We present the simulations and the interferometry data that show that the samples in the two sets of experiments fol...