Undercoolability of pure Co and Co-based alloys

The undercooling of Co and Co-Pd melts is investigated using both electromagnetic levitation and melt fluxing. These techniques, designed to reduce heterogeneous nucleation from container walls, surface oxides or inclusions, produced large undercoolings that approach the Curie temperatures (T-c) of the samples. The results are analysed within classical nucleation theory, incorporating the specific conditions of undercooling techniques and the composition dependence of the nucleation frequency. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.