Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 52: Femtosecond Spectroscopy IV

MO 52.4: Talk

Thursday, March 22, 2007, 14:45–15:00, 6B

Catastrophic melting of ice at the limit of superheating — •Marcus Schmeißer, Hristo Iglev, and Alfred Laubereau — Physik-Department E11, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany

Melting of ice is a process of universal relevance and considerable experimental and theoretical efforts have been invested to study this phenomenon. In our recent study of isotopically mixed ice [1,2] we demonstrated that shock laser heating of bulk ice can overcome the common surface melting, leading to substantial superheating of the ice lattice.

Here, we present an experimental study of bulk melting of protonated and isotopically mixed ice. Using the recently developed ultrafast IR temperature jump technique of ice [1,2] catastrophic melting of the excited ice lattice and further features were observed for the first time [3]. The partial melting process is accompanied by accelerated temperature and pressure decays of the residual ice component.

[1] H. Iglev, M. Schmeisser, K. Simeonidis, A. Thaller, A. Laubereau, Nature 439, 183 (2006).

[2] M. Schmeisser, A. Thaller, H. Iglev, A. Laubereau, New J. Phys. 8, 104+ (2006).

[3] M. Schmeisser, H. Iglev, A. Laubereau, subm.