Related Experiment Videos
Wedge filling and interface delocalization in finite Ising lattices with antisymmetric surface fields
Andrey Milchev1, M Müller, K Binder
1Institute for Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Abstract:
Theoretical predictions by Parry et al. for wetting phenomena in a wedge geometry are tested by Monte Carlo simulations. Simple cubic LxLxL(y) Ising lattices with nearest neighbor ferromagnetic exchange and four free LxL(y) surfaces, at which antisymmetric surface fields +/-H(s) act, are studied for a wide range of linear dimensions (4=L=320, 30=L(y)=1000), in an attempt to clarify finite size effects on the wedge filling transition in this "double-wedge" geometry. Interpreting the Ising model as a lattice gas, the problem is equivalent to a liquid-gas transition in a pore with quadratic cross section, where two walls favor the liquid and the other two walls favor the gas. For temperatures T below the bulk critical temperature T(c) this boundary condition (where periodic boundary conditions are used in the y direction along the wedges) leads to the formation of two domains with oppositely oriented magnetization and separated by an interface. For L,L(y)--> infinity and T larger than the filling transition temperature T(f)(H(s)), this interface runs from the one wedge where the surface planes with a different sign of the surface field meet (on average) straight to the opposite wedge, so that the average magnetization of the system is zero. For T