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 d(u) = 3 upper critical dimensionality.
Huber
P
P
Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Shpyrko
O G
OG
Pershan
P S
PS
Ocko
B M
BM
DiMasi
E
E
Deutsch
M
M