Introduction and Background

Abstract

The modern science and technology of rapid solidification has its beginnings about 35 years ago with the work of Pol Duwez and his coworkers at the California Institute of Technology. They developed methods for chilling a thin layer of liquid metal by rapid heat transfer to a highly conductive and relatively cold substrate. Despite its relatively recent emergence, Rapid Solidification Technology (RST) has had a substantial impact on our fundamental understanding of materials synthesis by solidification as well as on our ability to develop materials for technological applications. Rapid solidification can be somewhat arbitrarily defined as any solidification process in which the rate of change of temperature (the cooling rate) is at least 10² K/s and typically of the order of 10⁶K/s. In fact, cooling rates as high as 10¹⁰-10¹¹ K/s are achieved in laboratory experiments where melting is induced using a pulsed laser or other intense energy source. RST is the science and practice of melt solidification at such high rates of cooling.