Tetra point wetting at the free surface of liquid Ga-Bi

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.

Subjects

Physics - Statistical Mechanics

Physics - Materials Science

DDC Class

530: Physik

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Tetra point wetting at the free surface of liquid Ga-Bi