Wetting of Superfluid 4He by Liquid 3He

Abstract

We have investigated optically the spreading of He3 on top of the He4-rich solution in phase-separated helium-mixture films, 20-50 μm thick. In equilibrium, the He3 layer wets the He4-rich phase completely, but nearly circular or stripelike pools of He3-rich phase are stabilized instead when He4 atoms are condensed to the liquid sample at the rate 10 exp 15-5 × 10 exp 15 atoms/cm2s. For the contact angle we obtain about 10 mrad, which suggests a fractional change of the He3 surface tension by a factor of 10 exp −5 from the equilibrium value.