Secondary ionic forces in lead molybdate melt solidification

Abstract
We report a dendritic crystallization of ionic melt of lead molybdate (PbMoO4) under a concentric thermal field. The solidified melt is a PbMoO4 single crystal with [001] axis normal to surface. The dendrite arms propagate and branch along 〈310〉 and 〈130〉, forming a well-organized surface structure. It is evident that the interaction between a cation to its second-nearest anions determines the dendrite development and meltsolidification.