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Main Authors: Leoni, Fabio, Martelli, Fausto, Russo, John
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15433
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author Leoni, Fabio
Martelli, Fausto
Russo, John
author_facet Leoni, Fabio
Martelli, Fausto
Russo, John
contents The equilibration dynamics of ultrastable glasses subjected to heating protocols has attracted recent experimental and theoretical interest. With simulations of the mW water model, we investigate the devitrification and melting dynamics of both conventional quenched (QG) and vapor deposited (DG) amorphous ices under controlled heating ramps. By developing an algorithm to reconstruct hydrogen-bond networks, we show that bond ring statistics correlates with the structural stability of the glasses and allows tracking crystalline and liquid clusters during devitrification and melting. We find that QG melts in the bulk, whereas melting in DG preferentially begins near the free surface. During devitrification, the DG shows an excess of 5-membered rings near the free surface, which is consistent with its tendency to nucleate the crystal phase in this region. Additionally, the DG shows an Avrami exponent exceeding the standard 1+d behavior, while both glasses display the same sub-3d growth of liquid clusters across heating rates, indicating that the DG enhanced exponent stems from its higher kinetic stability.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15433
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Devitrification and Melting Dynamics in Vapor Deposited Water Ice
Leoni, Fabio
Martelli, Fausto
Russo, John
Soft Condensed Matter
Materials Science
The equilibration dynamics of ultrastable glasses subjected to heating protocols has attracted recent experimental and theoretical interest. With simulations of the mW water model, we investigate the devitrification and melting dynamics of both conventional quenched (QG) and vapor deposited (DG) amorphous ices under controlled heating ramps. By developing an algorithm to reconstruct hydrogen-bond networks, we show that bond ring statistics correlates with the structural stability of the glasses and allows tracking crystalline and liquid clusters during devitrification and melting. We find that QG melts in the bulk, whereas melting in DG preferentially begins near the free surface. During devitrification, the DG shows an excess of 5-membered rings near the free surface, which is consistent with its tendency to nucleate the crystal phase in this region. Additionally, the DG shows an Avrami exponent exceeding the standard 1+d behavior, while both glasses display the same sub-3d growth of liquid clusters across heating rates, indicating that the DG enhanced exponent stems from its higher kinetic stability.
title Devitrification and Melting Dynamics in Vapor Deposited Water Ice
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15433