The Nucleation and Growth of Crystalline Structures in a Supercooled Metallic Melt

In the present work, the crystalline phase nucleation and growth processes in a metallic melt are investigated at different supercooling values. We show that both at small and at extremely deep supercooling levels, the homogeneous nucleation scenario is realized at the initial stage of phase transition of the system. We found that the nucleus critical size depends slightly on the supercooling level of the system: in the considered temperature range the nucleus critical size decreases by a few tens particles at significant increasing of supercooling level. The maximal nucleation rate is achieved at moderate supercooling, which corresponds to temperature range located near the glass transition temperature of the system.