Wetting Transition in Liquid Helium

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Publisher website

14 July 1986

journal article
research article
Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters

Vol. 57 (2) , 218-221
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.57.218
PMID:10033751

Abstract

We have used a vibrating-wire microbalance technique to investigate the wetting of

{}^{3}{He}

and

{}^{4}{He}

on solid surfaces. Although superfluid

{}^{4}{He}

wets solid substrates and forms a thick film, we find that films of

{}^{3}{He}

and normal

{}^{4}{He}

are limited to less than thirteen layers. The

λ

transition appears to be a wetting transition for

{}^{4}{He}

.

Keywords

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