3. Liquid metal stability - [47] Observation of a Metastability Limit in Liquid Gallium. (1975), with Louis Bosio

L Bosio and C G Windsor, The Observation of a Meta-stability limit in Liquid Gallium, Phys. Rev. Letters, 35, 1652-1655, 1975.

 

Figure 3 The first measurements of the vanishing quasielastic widths in a supercooled liquid.

 

 

 

 

 

Windsor's interest in the effects on band structure on material properties lead to a long collaboration with Bosio's group in Orsay, Paris. They were expert in liquid gallium - a unique element in that it could be supercooled so far below its melting point. He first collaborated with them in measurements of the temperature dependence of the neutron structure factor. Tiny globules of the liquid were cushioned in an emulsion with deuterated alcohol. The experiment required much patience as many samples crystallised before their ultimate limit. Diffraction suggested the existence of a fundamental stability limit in the liquid, but proof came only with this inelastic experiment. The key to the interpretation was the quasi-elastic width at the peak in the structure factor which followed linearly to zero at the stability limit.