Solid-Liquid Interfacial Premelting

Yang Yang, Mark Asta, and Brian B. Laird

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 096102 – Published 28 February 2013

Abstract

We report the observation of a premelting transition at chemically sharp solid-liquid interfaces using molecular-dynamics simulations. The transition is observed in the solid-Al—liquid-Pb system and involves the formation of a liquid interfacial film of Al with a width that grows logarithmically as the bulk melting temperature is approached from below, consistent with current theories of premelting. The premelting behavior leads to a sharp change in the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient in the interfacial region and could have important consequences for phenomena such as particle coalescence and shape equilibration, which are governed by interfacial kinetic processes.

Received 21 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.096102

Authors & Affiliations

Yang Yang¹, Mark Asta², and Brian B. Laird^1,*

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA
²Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA