Liquid-to-vapor homogeneous nucleation in liquid nitrogen

Abstract

Experimental data on the liquid-to-vapor homogeneous-nucleation temperature, which provides a fundamental limit on the maximum attainable superheat, are presented for liquid nitrogen in the temperature range $77.4 \mathrm{K}<T_s<124.6\mathrm{} \mathrm{K}$, where $T_s$ is the saturated bath temperature of liquid nitrogen. These data were obtained from a transient-heating experiment and are relevant to the design of superconducting systems using the recently discovered high-temperature superconductors and liquid nitrogen as the coolant.