In situ visualization of crystallization inside high temperature silicate melts

The present work is concerned with the real time in situ visualization of crystallization processes inside strongly supercooled silicate melts using optical projection technique. The crystallization experiments are carried out for forsterite composition under container-less conditions. Starting material is heated above its liquidus temperature (2169 K) using a high power CO2 laser and crystallization is initiated following rapid cooling. Three different values of supercooling (ΔT≈320, 400, and 500 K, calculated with respect to the liquidus temperature of forsterite composition as reference) are independently employed to initiate the nucleation process by adjusting the output power of CO2 laser. Primary findings of the study show that a suitably designed optical system is capable of imaging melt convection at temperatures as high as near liquidus and presents a novel approach for the prediction of resultant crystallization textures in real time nondestructively. Using the developed optical arrangement, for...