Real-time movies of solid-to-liquid phase transitions

November 24, 2003 | Source: KurzweilAI

Chemists have captured atom-scale images of the melting process, revealing the first images of the transition of a solid into a liquid at the timescale of femtoseconds.

“Imagine being able to see atoms as they move in real time,” says Professor R. J. Dwayne Miller of the University of Toronto departments of Chemistry and Physics. “Chemistry and biology are fundamentally governed by changes in atomic structure. We now have a tool that will let us observe the most fundamental processes at the atomic level of inspection with sufficient time resolution to allow us to see chemical and biological events as they happen.”

The “movie” generated by the process revealed that the solid literally shook itself apart at the atomic level. The team was able to watch, step by step, as the initially well-ordered arrangement of aluminum atoms in the solid changed into the disordered state of the liquid. The aluminum melted in an astonishingly short time-within 3.5 picoseconds.

This work represents the first atomic level view of the melting process, one of the simplest structural changes of matter.

University of Toronto press release

News tip: Walter Purvis