Application of nanosize precipitates for estimation of temperature increase in thermal spikes

Processing of metallic samples with swift heavy ions and femtosecond laser pulses results in nanosecond heating spikes in nanometer size sample regions. The temperature increase in such heating pulses can be estimated from heating-induced phase transition in intentionally introduced nanosize precipitates. Here we demonstrate that the process of precipitate melting in heating pulses and resolidification in glassy state can be a reasonable choice for this purpose, since the precipitate solidification rate can be several orders of magnitude faster than that achieved during bulk metglass preparation. Moreover, it is shown that an appropriate choice of precipitate and matrix parameters allows to get a scale for the local temperature increase.