Liquid–liquid Transition in Supercooled Gallium Alloys under Nanoconfinement

NMR studies of the thermal evolution of the Ga-In-Sn and Ga-In liquid alloys embedded into opal matrices were carried out. Temperature dependences of the gallium lineshape, shift of the resonance frequency (Knight shift), and intensity were obtained upon cooling down to the alloy freezing and subsequent warming. A second high-frequency 71Ga NMR signal emerged for both alloys upon cooling, the NMR line intensity transferring gradually into this additional signal. The Knight shifts of the signals differed noticeably. The transformations of the gallium line upon warming were continuous and not affected by changes in the alloy compositions induced by melting. 115In NMR measurements were conducted to monitor the alloy compositions at freezing and melting. The findings suggest the occurrence of the liquid-liquid phase transition in the strongly supercooled alloys under nanoconfinement.