Interpretation of DTA Experiments Used for Crystal Nucleation Rate Determinations

An analysis is presented of two schemes which have been proposed for the determination of the temperature dependence of homogeneous crystal nucleation rates in glasses via DTA measurements. The first method is based upon the postulate that the inverse of the temperature at which the DTA crystallization rate is maximum, T 1 p , will increase monotonically as the number density of nucleated particles increases. The second method is based on the observation that the intensity at T p (peak height) increases as T p grows. The validity of both of these methods is assessed for inorganic glasses for two specific crystal growth models.