Abstract
Impurities critically influence crystallization, a process fundamental to both physical sciences and industrial engineering. However, understanding how impurity transport affects crystallization presents substantial experimental challenges. Here we visualized crystallization at the single-particle level for a relatively high concentration of impurities. We observed a bifurcation in growth modes—continuous growth or melting and recrystallization—governed by the ability of the system to remove impurity particles from the growth front. The initial nucleation configuration determines the crystal grain size and growth-front morphology, which in turn influence impurity transport. Small grains promote lateral impurity transport to grain boundaries, thus reducing impurity concentration and favouring continuous growth, whereas larger grains accumulate impurities, leading to melting and recrystallization. We reveal that the latter arises from the competition between crystallization and vitrification, which is a form of devitrification. This study provides insights into the relation between impurity concentration and crystallization pathways and highlights how the initial configuration shapes the final crystal morphology.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
Code availability
The codes used in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
P.T. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12425503, 12174071 and 12035004), the Space Application System of China Manned Space Program (Grant No. KJZ-YY-NLT0501), the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. 2023ZKZD06) and the Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research-FuDan University (Grant No. 22TQ003). Q.G. acknowledges support from the China Postdoc Science Foundation (Grant No. BX20220072). H.T. acknowledges support from a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (Grant No. JP20H05619) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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H.T. and P.T. conceived and supervised the research and wrote the paper. Q.G., D.X. and Y.C. performed the experiments. Q.G., H.F., D.X., Y.C., H.T. and P.T. analysed the data.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Spatial distribution of foreign particles and nuclei at initial configuration.
a,b, Initial distribution of nuclei and foreign particles for two growth modes. Foreign particles are labelled in pink. Left panels: Nuclei are shown in light blue. Right panels: Shaded areas represent the distribution of foreign particles within nuclei. c, Density variance 〈δρ2〉 of foreign particles at the initial stage of nucleation for both growth modes. Five samples of MR growth modes and four samples of CG mode are analyzed. The CG mode curve represents the mean values of four measurements, with error bars indicating their upper and lower bounds.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Defect types of foreign particles in BCC lattice.
a, Substitutional: A single foreign particle occupies a lattice site. b, Interstitial: A single foreign particle occupies an interstitial site. c, Substitutional interstitial pair: One foreign particle occupies a lattice site and the other an interstitial site. d,e, Defect chain: Substitutional-interstitial pairs form a defect chain, with crystal order decreasing as the number of foreign particles in the chain increases. f, Cluster: Foreign particles aggregate into a cluster, causing geometric frustration that impedes crystallization.
Extended Data Fig. 3 3D micro-structure of the melting region.
Evolution of the 3D structure in the melting region before, during, and after melting, with solid particles in olive green, liquid particles in blue, and foreign particles in pink.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Video 1
Morphological evolution of the growth front and the foreign-particle distribution in CG mode.
Supplementary Video 2
Morphological evolution of the growth front and the foreign-particle distribution in MR mode.
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Gao, Q., Fang, H., Xiang, D. et al. Impact of impurities on crystal growth. Nat. Phys. 21, 938–946 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02870-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02870-4
