A metastable liquid melted from a crystalline solid under decompression

Chuanlong Lin, Jesse S. Smith, Stanislav V. Sinogeikin, Yoshio Kono, Changyong Park, Curtis Kenney-Benson and Guoyin Shen ()
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Chuanlong Lin: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Jesse S. Smith: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Stanislav V. Sinogeikin: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Yoshio Kono: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Changyong Park: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Curtis Kenney-Benson: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Guoyin Shen: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract A metastable liquid may exist under supercooling, sustaining the liquid below the melting point such as supercooled water and silicon. It may also exist as a transient state in solid–solid transitions, as demonstrated in recent studies of colloidal particles and glass-forming metallic systems. One important question is whether a crystalline solid may directly melt into a sustainable metastable liquid. By thermal heating, a crystalline solid will always melt into a liquid above the melting point. Here we report that a high-pressure crystalline phase of bismuth can melt into a metastable liquid below the melting line through a decompression process. The decompression-induced metastable liquid can be maintained for hours in static conditions, and transform to crystalline phases when external perturbations, such as heating and cooling, are applied. It occurs in the pressure–temperature region similar to where the supercooled liquid Bi is observed. Akin to supercooled liquid, the pressure-induced metastable liquid may be more ubiquitous than we thought.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14260

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