https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050403
Corrugation-induced first-order wetting: An effective Hamiltonian study
1
Max-Planck Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung,
Kantstrasse 55, 14513 Teltow-Seehof, Germany
2
Department of Mathematics, Imperial College, 180 Queen's Gate, London
SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom
Corresponding author: a swain@mpikg-teltow.mpg.de
Received:
13
February
1998
Revised:
29
April
1998
Accepted:
6
May
1998
Published online: 15 August 1998
We consider an effective Hamiltonian description of critical wetting transitions in systems with short-range forces at a corrugated (periodic) wall. We are able to recover the results obtained previously from a "microscopic" density-functional approach in which the system wets in a discontinuous manner when the amplitude of the corrugations reaches a critical size A*. Using the functional renormalization group, we find that A* becomes dependent on the wetting parameter ω in such a way as to decrease the extent of the first- order regime. Nevertheless, we still expect wetting in the three-dimensional Ising model to proceed in a discontinuous manner for small deviations of the wall from the plane.
PACS: 64.60.Fr – Equilibrium properties near critical points, critical exponents / 68.10.-m – Fluid surfaces and fluid-fluid interfaces / 68.45.Gd – Wetting
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998