Experimental studies of the condensation of alkali metals

In this paper we give a brief overview of a series of experiments focused on the condensation of the alkali metals. The condensation of sodium is currently in progress and results are given for recent work with lithium. Supersaturation values for lithium range from approximately 300 at 830 K to 7 at 1100 K. The measured supersaturations tend to be much higher than the predictions of Classical Nucleation Theory and seem to be more closely aligned with the predictions of Scaled Nucleation Theory.