WETTING PROPERTIES OF LIQUID-HELIUM ON RUBIDIUM METAL

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.