Nucleation behavior of melted Bi films at cooling rates from 101 to 104K/s studied by combining scanning AC and DC nano-calorimetry techniques

Abstract

We study the nucleation behavior of undercooled liquid Bi at cooling rates ranging from 101 to 104 K/s using a combination of scanning DC and AC nano-calorimetry techniques. Upon initial melting, the Bi thin-film sample breaks up into silicon nitride-coated isolated islands. The number of islands in a typical sample is sufficiently large that highly repeatable nucleation behavior is observed, despite the stochastic nature of the nucleation process. We establish a data reduction technique to evaluate the nucleation rate from DC and AC calorimetry results. The results show that the driving force for the nucleation of melted Bi is well described by classical nucleation theory over a wide range of cooling rates. The proposed technique provides a unique and efficient way to examine nucleation kinetics with cooling rates over several orders of magnitude. The technique is quite general and can be used to evaluate reaction kinetics in other materials.