Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction on undercooled metallic melts

Electromagnetic levitation for containerless undercooling of bulk melts was combined with diffraction of synchrotron radiation to study in situ the crystallization of metastable phases in metals undercooled below their melting temperature prior to solidification. Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction was applied to identify the crystallographic phases formed during crystallization of the undercooled melt. The binary Ni–V alloy was chosen as a model system, because it shows phase competition of three different crystallographic phases, bcc, fcc and an intermetallic phase of tetragonal structure. In addition, the crystallization of undercooled melts of the easy glass-forming alloy Zr–Al–Ni–Cu was investigated