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How superheated crystals melt

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 388–390 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

In experiments1,2,3 where intense radiation penetrates into the bulk of a solid and causes ultrafast (femtosecond) heating, the superheated crystalline solid melts from within at a temperature above the equilibrium melting temperature. But what happens on the atomic scale as a solid loses crystalline order remains an open question. Molecular dynamics modelling allows the position of every atom to be traced at each instant, as a crystal transforms from solid to liquid. Here we use such detailed atomistic simulations, relevant for aluminium, to show that the thermal fluctuation initiating melting is an aggregate typically with 6–7 interstitials and 3–4 vacancies. This mechanism differs from those that have traditionally been proposed, which generally involve many more atoms at the initial melting stage.

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Figure 1: Order parameter and elastic constants.
Figure 2: Pair correlation functions.
Figure 3: Number of point defects before melting.
Figure 4: Spatial distribution of point defects.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Sandberg for useful discussions. This work has received funding from the Swedish research foundation SSF under the project ATOMICS.

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  1. Department of Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova Unversity Center, Theory of Materials, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden

    Mattias Forsblom & Göran Grimvall

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  1. Mattias Forsblom
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Correspondence to Göran Grimvall.

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Forsblom, M., Grimvall, G. How superheated crystals melt. Nature Mater 4, 388–390 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1375

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