Effect of samarium doping on the nucleation of fcc-aluminum in undercooled liquids

Abstract The effect of Sm doping on the fcc-Al nucleation was investigated in Al-Sm liquids with low Sm concentrations (x Sm ) with molecular dynamics simulations. The nucleation in the moderately undercooled liquid is achieved by the recently developed persistent-embryo method. Systematically computing the nucleation rate with different x Sm (x Sm  = 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 5%) at 700 K, we found Sm dopant reduces the nucleation rate by up to 25 orders of magnitudes with only 5% doping concentration. This effect is mostly associated with the increase in the free energy barrier with minor contribution from suppression of the attachment to the nucleus caused by Sm doping.