%0 Journal Article %@ 0036-8075 %A Fan, Xianqiang %A Fleming, Tristan G %A Clark, Samuel J %A Fezzaa, Kamel %A Getley, Anna CM %A Marussi, Sebastian %A Wang, Hongze %A Leung, Chu Lun Alex %A Kao, Andrew %A Lee, Peter D %D 2025 %F discovery:10205876 %I American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) %J Science %N 6736 %P 864-869 %T Magnetic modulation of keyhole instability during laser welding and additive manufacturing %U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205876/ %V 387 %X Keyhole instability during laser welding and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) can cause keyhole collapse and pore formation. Using high-speed x-ray imaging, we demonstrate that the flow vortex-induced protrusion on the rear keyhole wall is crucial in initiating keyhole instability. Applying a transverse magnetic field suppresses the keyhole instability by driving a secondary thermoelectric magnetohydrodynamics (TEMHD) flow that alters the net flow vortex. This minimizes protrusions and large-amplitude keyhole oscillations. The suppression effectiveness depends on the laser scanning direction relative to the magnetic field orientation because this controls the Seebeck effect-induced Lorentz force's direction. We show that at LPBF length scales, electromagnetic damping is weak, and for alloys with a large Seebeck coefficient, TEMHD becomes the dominant mechanism controlling flow behind the keyhole. %Z This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.