Extremely low critical cooling rate measured on dispersed Pd43Ni10Cu27P20

Crystallization of dispersed Pd43Ni10Cu27P20 melts is studied during constant cooling and heating. Investigations are carried out on samples that are dispersed into several hundred particles which are fluxed in B2O3. The size of the particles is chosen in such a way that crystallization of individual particles can be observed. Constant cooling experiments with rates between 0.3 and 0.0016 K/s are performed. In order to determine the fraction of particles that crystallize upon cooling, the crystallization during subsequent heating at 0.3 K/s is utilized. 10%–15% of the particles do not crystallize during cooling with a rate as low as 0.005 K/s. This is the lowest rate that avoids crystallization ever measured for a metallic system. This extremely low critical cooling rate suggests that a fraction of the particles do not contain the impurities that act as nuclei in bulk samples. Therefore, in these particles, nuclei first have to form and crystallization does not take place, as it was found for bulk Pd43Ni10Cu27P20, by the growth on pre-existing nuclei formed by impurities.