Fig. 4: Calculated entropy for superheated gold.
From: Superheating gold beyond the predicted entropy catastrophe threshold
The calculated entropy is shown versus temperature for the solid (blue) and the liquid (red) phases. The results for the solids are calculated in two ways. The light-blue dashed curve shows the entropy including the terms for lattice expansion and changing electronic heat capacity. The dark-blue solid curve does not include these effects, corresponding to rapidly heated gold. For reference, the markers indicate the calculated entropy corresponding to the temperatures we measured in the solid material for the low-fluence (triangles) and high-fluence (squares) cases. The vertical dashed line denotes the originally proposed superheating limit1. Clearly, intense, ultrafast heating without sufficient time for lattice expansion can avoid the entropy catastrophe.
