# Change in the Crystallization Features of Supercooled Liquid Metal with an Increase in the Supercooling Level

## TL;DR

This study models homogeneous crystal nucleation in supercooled liquid metals, revealing how nucleation mechanisms and crystal structures change with supercooling levels, especially near the glass transition temperature.

## Contribution

It introduces a model using short-range oscillatory potentials to analyze nucleation mechanisms across various supercooling levels, including amorphous states.

## Key findings

- Nucleation occurs throughout the temperature range studied.
- Low supercooling leads to mononuclear crystallization.
- High supercooling results in high nucleus concentration and branched structures.

## Abstract

The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the liquid at various supercooling levels, including those corresponding to an amorphous state, have been determined. The sizes and shapes of formed crystal grains have been estimated statistically. The results indicate that the mechanisms of nucleation occurs throughout the entire considered temperature range. The crystallization of the system at low supercooling levels occurs through a mononuclear scenario. A high concentration of crystal nuclei formed at high supercooling levels (i.e., at temperatures comparable to and below the glass transition temperature $T_g$) creates the semblance of the presence of branched structures, which is sometimes erroneously interpreted as a signature of phase separation. The temperature dependence of the maximum concentration of crystal grains demonstrates two regimes the transition between which occurs at a temperature comparable to the glass transition temperature $T_g$.