title: First-order and critical wetting of alkanes on water
abstract: Ellipsometry measurements of the wetting behavior of different alkanes on water show a sequence of two wetting transitions: a first-order (discontinuous) transition followed by a critical (continuous) one. We report temperature-induced wetting transitions for different alkanes and a novel pressure-induced wetting transition for an alkane mixture. The experiments enable us to determine the global wetting phase diagram as a function of chain length and temperature which we subsequently calculate theoretically. The two transition lines are found to be approximately parallel, in accordance with basic theoretical arguments.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Superieure, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dobbs
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Broseta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Indekeu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meunier