Roughening and melting of stepped aluminum surfaces

Solid-liquid interfacial premelting

We report the observation of a premelting transition at chemically sharp solid-liquid interfaces using molecular-dynamics simulations. The transition is observed in the solid-Al-liquid-Pb system and involves the formation of a liquid interfacial film of Al with a width that grows logarithmically as the bulk melting temperature is approached from below, consistent with current theories of premelting. The premelting behavior leads to a sharp change in the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient in the interfacial region and could have important consequences for phenomena such as particle coalescence and shape equilibration, which are governed by interfacial kinetic processes.