Research Group for ![]() [Japanese][English] |
Our main research interests are on various phase transition phenomena of snow and ice crystals. Ice is one of the most abundant materials on the earth surface, and its phase transition governs a wide variety of phenomena on the earth. For example, the growth and sublimation/melting of ice crystals give a significant impact on the earth's environment through weather and albedo of the earth surface. In addition, ice crystals play a key role in heterogeneous physical/chemical reactions, such as the degradation of ozone and organic compounds adsorbed on ice crystal surfaces by UV light irradiation, the suppression of the growth of ice in living things by antifreeze proteins adsorbed on ice crystal surfaces, etc. Hence the molecular-level understanding of ice crystals and their surfaces is crucially important. |
How are their beautiful patterns created? Current Research Subjects Recent Publications Members |
Research Group for Phase Transition Dynamics of Ice The Institute of Low Temperature Science Hokkaido University N19 W8, Sapporo 060-0819, JAPAN phone: +81-11-706-6880 (Prof. Gen Sazaki) |
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