Spectroscopic evidence of a wetting and prewetting transition in liquid K-KCl mixtures

Spectroscopic ellipsometry and simultaneous reflectivity measurements of liquid KxKCl1-x solutions clearly exhibit a first order wetting transition in metal-rich melts. At the sample/substrate interface, salt-rich wetting films of mesoscopic thickness ( approximately 100 nm) are observed at and off of coexistence. They are uniquely characterized by the liquid F-center absorption band. However, crossing the prewetting line towards metal-rich concentrations, the F bands disappear. From the observation of the liquid F-center band, it is concluded that a strong undercooling of the wetting films of about 200 K may occur in binary metallic fluids, which is demonstrated here for the first time.     

Observation of superheating during picosecond laser melting

The surface temperature of GaAs during pulsed laser heating is obtained from the measured velocity distributions of evaporated atoms. For nanosecond pulses the observed solid-liquid transition temperature agrees with the equilibrium melting point. It is shown that with picosecond pulses the solid is superheated by several hundred degrees.     

Surface aided replica exchange algorithm applied to the prewetting transition

A novel algorithm, termed surface aided replica exchange (SARE), was introduced in which the fluid–surface interaction was varied in order to generate different replicas in a particular ensemble. Exchange between replicas was allowed with a probability of acceptance obtained by imposing detailed balance. The method was implemented in a modified isothermal-isobaric ensemble that permitted precise characterization of the prewetting line of a simple adsorbed fluid. The prewetting line for each surface was characterized by computing the adsorption of the fluid as a function of pressure, and the wetting temperature estimated for each surface.     

Contact melting of transition metals

Contact melting of transition metals is discussed on the basis of ideas about the formation of stable electron configurations in condensed systems. It is shown that the contact-melting temperature increases as the statistical weight and energetic stability of the most stable electronic configurations of the crystals in contact increase. The statistical weight of the stable electronic configurations of a crystal is associated with its stability determinant, constructed from the second derivatives of the thermodynamic potential. A proposed dependence of the contact-melting temperature on the statistical weight of stable electronic configurations is confirmed experimentally.Translated from Izvestiya VUZ. Fizika, No. 10, pp. 99–104, October, 1969.     

Two-dimensional melting transition observed in a block copolymer

We report the observation of two-dimensional melting in a monolayer film of a sphere-forming diblock copolymer. By annealing in a well-controlled temperature gradient we obtain a complete record of the transition from a low-temperature hexatic phase to a high-temperature liquid in a single experiment. We investigate the temperature dependence of the orientational and translational correlation lengths, as well as of the topological defect density. All evidence suggests that the melting transition is first-order, but correlations in the liquid phase indicate the existence of an underlying second-order transition preempted by the first-order freezing.     

Vacancy formation and squashing during surface melting and the size effect on surface-induced melting of metals

On the basis of a vacancy-squashing model for melting that we developed recently, a vacancy formed in the premelting liquid-like-layer is proposed to be squashed at the instance of its formation, which will significantly facilitate vacancy formation. Accordingly, the temperature for surface-induced melting and its size dependence are quantitatively calculated. By comparing the calculated data with the reported experimental results for metals, we show that the present approach may potentially predict the size-dependent melting point of other metals.     

Controlled nucleation of point defects on a disclination line near a free surface during smectic-A-to-nematic directional melting

A disclination line populated with point defects that break the translational symmetry forms near a free nematic (N) interface in a confined geometry. The disclination line is, however, absent in the smectic-A phase (SmA). We use this fact to control the formation of point defect distributions on a disclination line by directional melting of the SmA phase in a temperature gradient. A threshold velocity ( v _th) exists below which a defect-free disclination line is formed. The frequency of nucleation of point defects increases steadily for v > v _th and exhibits a remarkable regularity. We derive an empirical scaling for v _th in terms of the experimental tuning parameters. We propose a simple model that allows to understand the formation of the point defects. Received 1 October 2002 / Published online: 15 April 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Permanent address: Departament de Quımica Fısica, Universitat de Barcelona, Martı i Franquès 1, Barcelona 08028, Spain; e-mail: jignes@qf.ub.es     

Opto-thermal study of the melting transition of benzophenone

We report a series of opto-thermal transient emission radiometry (OTTER) measurements on benzophenone over the temperature range 20–80°C, which includes the melting transition at 48°C. At temperatures sufficiently close, but below the melting point, the form of the opto-thermal decay curves was found to change, when the laser pulse energy was sufficient to cause transient melting near the surface. Such measurements could be useful in the study of re-crystallation dynamics in pulsed laser annealing and similar surface treatments. In addition, the experiment gives a direct measure of ₀, the initial jump in surface temperature, and a comparison of solid and liquid thermal diffusivities. The values found in the present study are ₀, andD(solid)/D(liquid)=2.2±0.2.