Sublimation via virtual melting inside an elastoplastic material

Thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanical approaches for sublimation inside elastoplastic material via intermediate (virtual) melting under tensile pressure are developed for a spherical nucleus. Virtual melting represents the appearance of subcritical liquid drop that immediately transforms to gas bubble. The variety of mechanisms and transformation paths are revealed in different pressure ranges. The radius of the critical gas nucleus differs from the classical one because elastic energy of melt is size dependent due to surface tension. Our developed approach can be extended for various structural changes in nanoparticles within a void inside elastoplastic material and two-stage and multistage nucleation processes. Universal mechanical gas bubble instability is revealed.