Critical Casimir effect and wetting by helium mixtures
Condensed Matter
2009-11-10 v1
Abstract
We have measured the contact angle of the interface of phase-separated He-He mixtures against a sapphire window. We have found that this angle is finite and does not tend to zero when the temperature approaches , the temperature of the tri-critical point. On the contrary, it increases with temperature. This behavior is a remarkable exception to what is generally observed near critical points, i.e. "critical point wetting''. We propose that it is a consequence of the "critical Casimir effect'' which leads to an effective attraction of the He-He interface by the sapphire near .
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0303558,
title = {Critical Casimir effect and wetting by helium mixtures},
author = {Sebastien Balibar and Tomohiro Ueno and Takao Mizusaki and Frederic Caupin and Etienne Rolley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0303558},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
submitted july 13 (2002), published march 20 (2003)