Scaling of the Hysteresis Loop in Two-dimensional Solidification

TL;DR

This study investigates the hysteresis behavior of 2D gas-solid phase transitions for noble gases on NaCl surfaces, revealing power-law scaling with heating rate and confirming theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the hysteresis loop widths scale with the heating rate as a power law and confirms the similarity of loops across different rates, aligning with theoretical models.

Findings

Hysteresis loop widths scale as r^alpha with alpha between 0.4 and 0.5.

Hysteresis loops are similar across different heating rates.

Condensed island area grows with t^4 dependence.

Abstract

The first order phase transitions between a two-dimensional (2d) gas and the 2d solid of the first monolayer have been studied for the noble gases Ar, Kr and Xe on a NaCl(100) surface in quasi-equilibrium with the three-dimensional gas phase. Using linear temperature ramps, we show that the widths of the hysteresis loops of these transitions as a function of the heating rate, r, scales with a power law r^alpha with alpha between 0.4 and 0.5 depending on the system. The hysteresis loops for different heating rates are similar. The island area of the condensed layer was found to grow initially with a t^4 time dependence. These results are in agreement with theory, which predicts alpha = 0.5 and hysteresis loop similarity.