Asymmetric Melting and Freezing Kinetics in Silicon

We report measurements of the melting velocity of amorphous Si relative to that of (100) crystalline Si. These measurements permit the first severe experimental test of theories describing highly nonequilibrium freezing and melting. The results indicate that freezing in Si is inherently slower than melting; this asymmetry can be interpreted in terms of an entropy-related reduction in the freezing rate.