Homogeneous nucleation of undercooled Al–Ni melts via a machine-learned interaction potential

Homogeneous nucleation processes are important for understanding solidification and the resulting microstructure of materials. Simulating this process requires accurately describing the interactions between atoms, which is further complicated by chemical order through cross-species interactions. The large scales needed to observe rare nucleation events are far beyond the capabilities of ab initio simulations. Machine learning is used for overcoming these limitations in terms of both accuracy and speed, by building a high-dimensional neural network potential for binary Al-Ni alloys, which serve as a model system relevant to many industrial applications. The potential is validated against experimental diffusion, viscosity, scattering data, and its melting temperature. It is applied to large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous nucleation, specifically for Al-Ni at equiatomic composition and for pure Ni. Pure Ni nucleates in a single step into an fcc crystal phase, in contrast to previous results obtained with a classical empirical potential. This highlights the sensitivity of nucleation pathways to the underlying atomic interactions. Our findings suggest that the nucleation pathway for AlNi proceeds in a single step toward a B2 structure, which is discussed in relation to the pure elements counterparts.