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In-situ comparison of interface instability of basal and edge planes during unidirectional growth of sea ice

The unique anisotropy of ice has endowed sea ice growth a peculiar and attractive subject from both fundamental and applied viewpoints. The distinct growth behaviors between edge and basal plane of ice are one of the central topics in ice growth. And the unidirectional freezing pattern stems from perturbations of both basal and edge planes. To date there is no direct comparison of unidirectional freezing behavior between basal and edge plane ice. Here, we in-situ investigate the planar instability as well as the unidirectional freezing pattern of basal and edge planes of ice by a design of parallel freezing samples with specified ice orientations in a NaCl solution as a modeled sea water. The planar instability is discussed via neutral stability curves with surface tension anisotropy for both basal and edge plane ice. For the first time, we realize the simultaneous observation of solid/liquid interfaces of basal and edge plane ice under the same set of freezing conditions. The results show that planar instability occurs faster for edge plane ice than basal plane ice. The time-lapse observations confirm a transient competitive interaction of perturbations between the basal and edge planes ice, which is explained by the anisotropic growth of perturbations in basal and edge planes of ice. These experimental results provide a link between morphology evolution of unidirectional grown sea ice and different ice orientations and are suggested to enrich our understanding of sea ice growth as well as crystallization pattern of other anisotropic materials.