Temperature-driven motion of a wetting layer

Abstract

The wetting layer formed by a phase-separated binary liquid mixture in contact with a glass substrate is observed to have a large nonequilibrium response in thickness to small temperature perturbations. An independent theoretical and physical picture is developed, which also provides a direct means of measuring the forces responsible for wetting and their effect on the dynamics of diffusion-limited interfacial motion. As an example, the curvature and anharmonicity of the minimum in the effective interface potential are found.