Abstract |
Ice plays crucially important roles in various phenomena in nature because of its abundance on earth (and also in space). However, revealing the dynamic behavior of phase transition of ice remains an experimental challenge. Here we show the molecular-level in-situ observation of ice crystal surfaces by advanced optical microscopy, by which we can directly visualize elementary steps (0.4 nm in thickness) on ice crystal surface. We tried to observe the surface melting processes of ice crystals under subzero temperatures. Then we found that two types of quasi-liquid layers that exhibit different morphologies and dynamics appear on basal faces of ice crystals. In the workshop, I will show you many in-situ observation movies of surface melting processes. |