Wetting on a geometrically structured substrate

Abstract

We have measured the growth of liquid films of Ar and Kr adsorbed on a geometrically structured substrate obtained by machining on a lathe a thin Al disk with a sharp cutting tool. Near liquid–vapor bulk coexistence, the film mass is found to diverge as a power law of the chemical potential difference from saturation with an exponent x=−1.93±0.10, in very good agreement with recent scaling analysis results.