Nonequilibrium melting and crystallization of a model Lennard-Jones system

Nonequilibrium melting and crystallization of a model Lennard-Jones system were investigated with molecular dynamics simulations to quantify the maximum superheating/supercooling at fixed pressure, and over-pressurization/over-depressurization at fixed temperature. The temperature and pressure hystereses were found to be equivalent with regard to the Gibbs free energy barrier for nucleation of liquid or solid. These results place upper bounds on hysteretic effects of solidification and melting in high heating- and strain-rate experiments such as shock wave loading and release. The authors also demonstrate that the equilibrium melting temperature at a given pressure can be obtained directly from temperatures at the maximum superheating and supercooling on the temperature hysteresis; this approach, called the hysteresis method, is a conceptually simple and computationally inexpensive alternative to solid-liquid coexistence simulation and thermodynamic integration methods, and should be regarded as a general method. We also found that the extent of maximum superheating/supercooling is weakly pressure dependent, and the solid-liquid interfacial energy increases with pressure. The Lindemann fractional root-mean-squared displacement of solid and liquid at equilibrium and extreme metastable states is quantified, and is predicted to remain constant (0.14) at high pressures for solid at the equilibrium melting temperature.