Interface potential and line tension for Bose-Einstein condensate mixtures near a hard wall

Abstract

Within Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) theory we derive the interface potential V (l) which describes the interaction between the interface separating two demixed Bose-condensed gases and an optical hard wall at a distance l. Previous work revealed that this interaction gives rise to extraordinary wetting and prewetting phenomena. Calculations that explore non-equilibrium properties by using l as a constraint provide a thorough explanation for this behavior. We find that at bulk two-phase coexistence, V (l) for both complete wetting and partial wetting is monotonic with exponential decay. Remarkably, at the first-order wetting phase transition, V(l) is independent of l. This anomaly explains the infinite continuous degeneracy of the grand potential reported earlier. As a physical application, using V(l) we study the three-phase contact line where the interface meets the wall under a contact angle theta. Employing an interface displacement model we calculate the structure of this inhomogeneity and its line tension tau. Contrary to what happens at a usual first-order wetting transition in systems with short-range forces, tau does not approach a nonzero positive constant for theta going to zero, but instead approaches zero (from below) as would be expected for a critical wetting transition. This hybrid character of tau is a consequence of the absence of a barrier in V(l) at wetting. For a typical V(l) we provide a conjecture for the exact line tension within GP theory.

18 pages, 15 figures

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