Crystallization of Free Particles and Island Films

An experimental study of supercooling is carried out using various techniques. Due to the high sensitivity of the supercooled state to impurities, the most reliable results can be obtained using vacuum methods of studies. The use of vacuum deposition proves to be particularly effective in the case when the study of supercooled liquid takes place immediately after it is obtained. This condition corresponds to the original method of changing the condensation mechanism, which is one of the variants of the technology of samples of variable content and variable state. It is with the use of this method that the main results presented in this chapter were obtained. The method of condensation mechanism change is based on the morphological criterion for determining the phase transition temperature and the assumption that particles that are liquid at the initial stages of obtaining remain liquid as long as the substrate temperature exceeds the temperature of maximum supercooling. Using the method of condensation mechanism change, supercooling temperatures in a large number of contact pairs were determined, and it was shown that the dependence of relative supercooling on the wetting angle is close to linear. The influence of the residual atmosphere on the supercooling value was established. It is worth noting that the results obtained using this method refer to the same vacuum cycle in which the samples were condensed. Moreover, they correspond to the supercooled state that exists directly during the deposition of the films.