Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2025

A Microfluidic Approach for the Study of Ice and Clathrate Hydrate Crystallization
Published on: August 18, 2022
Flash melting amorphous ice
Nathan J Mowry1, Constantin R Krüger1, Gabriele Bongiovanni1
1Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Molecular Nanodynamics, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Water can be vitrified if it is cooled at high rates, which makes it possible to outrun crystallization in so-called no man's land, a range of deeply supercooled temperatures where water crystallizes rapidly. Here, we study the reverse process in pure water samples by flash melting amorphous ice with microsecond laser pulses. Time-resolved electron diffraction reveals that the sample transiently crystallizes despite a heating rate of more than 5 × 106 K/s, even though under the same conditions, vitrification can be achieved with a similar cooling rate of 107 K/s. Moreover, we observe different crystallization kinetics for amorphous solid water and hyperquenched glassy water. These experiments open up new avenues for elucidating the crystallization mechanism of water and studying its dynamics in no man's land. They also add important insights into the laser melting and revitrification processes that are integral to the emerging field of microsecond time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition
Cryo-electron Microscopy
Molecular and Ionic Solids
Molecular Solids
Molecular crystalline solids, such as ice, sucrose (table sugar), and iodine, are solids that are composed of neutral molecules as their constituent units. These molecules are held together by weak intermolecular forces such as London dispersion forces, dipole-dipole interactions, or hydrogen bonds, which...
Sublimation

