Observation of a prewetting transition during surface melting of caprolactam
- 19 October 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 69 (16), 2384-2387
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.69.2384
Abstract
The surface-induced melting of the closed-packed (100) face of the anisotropic molecular crystal caprolactam has been studied using x-ray reflectivity. A thin-to-thick film prewetting transition is observed at about 13 K below the bulk melting point. Only above this transition does the thickness of the quasiliquid layer increase continuously with temperature. We speculate that initially the surface melting proceeds via layering transitions.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Synchrotron X-Ray Scattering from the Al(110) Surface at the Onset of Surface MeltingEurophysics Letters, 1991
- Order-disorder transitions at the Ge(111) surfaceSurface Science, 1991
- Surface-induced melting and freezing II. A semi-empirical Landau-type modelSurface Science, 1990
- Melting of al surfacesSurface Science, 1990
- Role of long-range interactions in the melting of a metallic surfacePhysical Review B, 1989
- Surface meltingContemporary Physics, 1989
- Surface melting of neon and argon films: Profile of the crystal-melt interfacePhysical Review Letters, 1988
- Thin boundary layers of the melt of a biphenyl single crystal and its premeltingLangmuir, 1987
- Surface Melting and Roughening of Adsorbed Argon FilmsPhysical Review Letters, 1986
- Observation of Surface MeltingPhysical Review Letters, 1985