Melting at the Limit of Superheating

Theories on superheating-melting mostly involve vibrational and mechanical instabilities, catastrophes of entropy, volume and rigidity, and nucleation-based kinetic models. The maximum achievable superheating is dictated by nucleation process of melt in crystals, which in turn depends on material properties and heating rates. We have established the systematics for maximum superheating by incorporating a dimensionless nucleation barrier parameter and heating rate, with which systematic molecular dynamics simulations and dynamic experiments are consistent. Detailed microscopic investigation with large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of the superheating-melting process, and structure-resolved ultrafast dynamic experiments are necessary to establish the connection between the kinetic limit of superheating and vibrational and mechanical instabilities, and catastrophe theories.