CPM Seminar

As was already reported by Fahrenheit in 1724, liquids can be significantly undercooled below their equilibrium melting temperatures. Undercooled melts are in a metastable state from which during solidification metastable solid phases and/or metastable morphologies with novel properties may be formed. The nucleation and growth behavior of undercooled melts on the one hand is dependent on the properties of the liquid phase (e.g. short-range order, thermophysical properties), on the other hand on those of the solid. Thus, the profound understanding of the properties of undercooled melts and their influence on nucleation and growth phenomena in undercooled metallic melts is of fundamental importance for the development of new materials.

This talk gives an overview over the physics of undercooled metallic melts. Different experimental techniques to undercool liquids are described. Recent theoretical and experimental investigations on the short-range order in undercooled melts are reported and the effect of the short-range order in the liquid on the nucleation behavior of different solid structures is discussed.

Thursday, March 16th 2000, 16:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 118