Superheating of confined Pb thin films

Phys Rev Lett. 2000 Aug 14;85(7):1484-7. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1484.

Abstract

In this work we report, for the first time, an experimental observation of a superheating phenomenon in metal thin films. By means of cold rolling, Pb thin films of about 20 nm thick were sandwiched by Al layers, and between them semicoherent epitaxial Pb/Al interfaces were formed. In situ x-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the confined Pb thin films could be superheated for at least 6 degrees C. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that such a substantial superheating in the confined two-dimensional thin films may originate from suppression of growth of the molten droplets by the epitaxial Al/Pb/Al confinement, instead of suppression of melt nucleation for the confined particle superheating.