2003/03/20 by Tetsuro Ueno, Sebastien Balibar, S. Balibar +7 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.116102
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 116102 · submitted july 13 (2002), published march 20 (2003)
openalex publication_date 2003/03/20 · arxiv created 2003/03/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have measured the contact angle of the interface of phase-separated 3He-4He mixtures against a sapphire window. We have found that this angle is finite and does not tend to zero when the temperature approaches T(t), the temperature of the tricritical 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 3He-4He interface by the sapphire near T(t).