ROLE OF THE ATTRACTION BETWEEN LIQUID-HE-3 AND A SOLID SUBSTRATE ON THE SURFACE FERROMAGNETIC INSTABILITY OF THE HE-3

After reviewing the properties of liquid 3He in contact with a substrate we calculate how much the van der Waals attraction to the wall additionally favors the surface ferromagnetic instability of the otherwise paramagnetic bulk liquid. We thus show that the observed Curie- Weiss-type susceptibility experimentally observed for liquid 3He in confined geometries in the millikelvin range undoubtedly has at least part of its source in the high-density fluid closest to the wall. The role of the solid 3He part sticking right on the wall is also discussed and further experiments (neutron ones in particular) are suggested. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.