Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Homogeneous Nucleation Catastrophe as a Kinetic Stability Limit for Superheated Crystal

  • CAS - Institute of Metal Research
  • National University of Singapore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Homogeneous nucleation kinetics for melting in superheated crystals is analyzed in order to derive a kinetic stability limit for the crystal lattice above its equilibrium melting point (Tm). It is found that at a critical temperature (TmK, which is about 1.2Tm for various elemental metals) a massive homogeneous nucleation of melting occurs in the superheated crystal. Such a homogeneous nucleation catastrophe, which occurs before other proposed (rigidity, volume, and entropy) catastrophes can intervene, provides us with a kinetic stability limit for superheated crystals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4474-4477
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume80
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Homogeneous Nucleation Catastrophe as a Kinetic Stability Limit for Superheated Crystal'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this