Corrugation-Induced First-Order Wetting: An Effective Hamiltonian Study

TL;DR

This paper uses an effective Hamiltonian and renormalization group methods to analyze how surface corrugations influence the nature of wetting transitions, revealing conditions under which wetting remains discontinuous.

Contribution

It introduces an effective Hamiltonian approach combined with functional renormalization group analysis to study critical wetting on corrugated surfaces, extending previous microscopic results.

Findings

Wetting transition remains discontinuous for small wall deviations.

Critical amplitude A* depends on the wetting parameter , reducing the first-order regime.

Wetting in the Ising model is expected to be discontinuous near a flat wall.

Abstract

We consider an effective Hamiltonian description of critical wetting transitions in systems with short-range forces at a corrugated (periodic) wall. We are able to recover the results obtained previously from a `microscopic' density-functional approach in which the system wets in a discontinuous manner when the amplitude of the corrugations reaches a critical size A*. Using the functional renormalization group, we find that A* becomes dependent on the wetting parameter \omega in such a way as to decrease the extent of the first-order regime. Nevertheless, we still expect wetting in the Ising model to proceed in a discontinuous manner for small deviations of the wall from the plane.