title: A metastable liquid melted from a crystalline solid under decompression.
abstract: A metastable liquid may exist under supercooling, sustaining the liquid below the melting point such as supercooled water and silicon. It may also exist as a transient state in solid-solid transitions, as demonstrated in recent studies of colloidal particles and glass-forming metallic systems. One important question is whether a crystalline solid may directly melt into a sustainable metastable liquid. By thermal heating, a crystalline solid will always melt into a liquid above the melting point. Here we report that a high-pressure crystalline phase of bismuth can melt into a metastable liquid below the melting line through a decompression process. The decompression-induced metastable liquid can be maintained for hours in static conditions, and transform to crystalline phases when external perturbations, such as heating and cooling, are applied. It occurs in the pressure-temperature region similar to where the supercooled liquid Bi is observed. Akin to supercooled liquid, the pressure-induced metastable liquid may be more ubiquitous than we thought.
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Chuanlong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Jesse S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Stanislav V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Sinogeikin
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Changyong
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3363-5788
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Curtis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kenney-Benson
authors.affiliation: HPCAT, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Guoyin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shen