Abstract

When a solid is heated up and melted the rate of evolution of the solidliquid phase transition may be limited by the kinetics of the atomic rearrangement connected with the transition if the heating is sufficiently fast. In such a situation the solid may be driven into a highly superheated metastable state characterized by a temperature greater than the equilibrium melt temperature. Strong superheating with excess temperatures comparable with the melting temperature may be expected to occur during heating and melting on a picosecond or femtosecond time scale.

© 1986 Optical Society of America