Monday 26 September 2011
Lead that is deposited on metal surfaces tends to spread out like a pancake: it wets the substrate. Using Low Energy Electron Microscopy we show how Quantum Size Effects delicately alter the structure of these pancakes. When the pancakes are heated the tendency to wet is reduced until eventually a spectacular collapse of the pancakes into spherical droplets is observed. This transition was visualized directly in the LEEM experiments of Tjeerd Bollmann that have now appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters.
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