Tetra Point Wetting at the Free Surface of Liquid Ga-Bi

P. Huber, O. G. Shpyrko, P. S. Pershan, B. M. Ocko, E. DiMasi, and M. Deutsch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 035502 – Published 28 June 2002
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Abstract

A continuous surface wetting transition, pinned to a solid-liquid-liquid-vapor tetra coexistence point, is studied by x-ray reflectivity in liquid Ga-Bi binary alloys. The short-range surface potential is determined from the measured temperature evolution of the wetting film. The thermal fluctuations are shown to be insufficient to induce a noticeable breakdown of mean-field behavior, expected in short-range-interacting systems due to their du=3 upper critical dimensionality.

  • Received 13 April 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.035502

©2002 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

P. Huber1, O. G. Shpyrko1, P. S. Pershan1, B. M. Ocko2, E. DiMasi2, and M. Deutsch3

  • 1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
  • 2Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
  • 3Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

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Vol. 89, Iss. 3 — 15 July 2002

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