Wetting properties of liquid helium on rubidium metal
- Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Paris (France); and others
Wetting properties of liquid helium on rubidium metal have been investigated in the temperature range 1.0-1.7 K using a heat conduction method. The rubidium surface is found to be wetted under saturated vapor conditions. Prewetting transitions have been observed for rather weak offsets from saturation, indicating that rubidium is close to the nonwetting limit at T = 0 K. Presumably because of substrate inhomogeneities, the prewetting transitions are experimentally found to be continuous and hysteretic. No evidence for the prewetting critical point has been found up to 1.7 K. The prewetting line verifies a simple linear relation between the liquid-vapour surface tension and the two third power of the chemical potential offset, but does not conform quantitatively to the simple model currently used.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 98795
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Vol. 98, Issue 1-2; Other Information: PBD: Jan 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Wetting behavior of helium isotopic mixtures on alkali metals
Helium wetting and prewetting phenomena at finite temperatures