Surface layering of liquids: The role of surface tension

Abstract

Recent measurements show that the free surfaces of liquid metals and alloys are always layered, regardless of composition and surface tension; a result supported by three decades of simulations and theory. Recent theoretical work claims, however, that at low enough temperatures the free surfaces of all liquids should become layered, unless preempted by bulk freezing. Using x-ray reflectivity and diffuse scattering measurements we show that there is no observable surface-induced layering in water at T=298 K, thus highlighting a fundamental difference between dielectric and metallic liquids. The implications of this result for the question in the title are discussed.

5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B. 69 (2004)

References in corpus (3)

• X-ray study of the liquid potassium surface: structure and capillary wave excitations
• Pairing Interactions and Gibbs Adsorption at the Liquid Bi-In Surface: A Resonant X-Ray Reflectivity Study
• Microscopic Surface Structure of Liquid Alkali Metals

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Melting and nonmelting of solid surfaces and nanosystems
• Anomalous layering at the liquid Sn surface
• Atomic-scale surface demixing in a eutectic liquid BiSn alloy
• Crystalline Surface Phases of the Liquid Au-Si Eutectic Alloy
• Applications of computational geometry to the molecular simulation of interfaces
• Thermally excited capillary waves at vapor/liquid interfaces of water-alcohol mixtures
• From density to interface fluctuations: the origin of wavelength dependence in surface tensions
• Extending the capillary wave model to include the effect of bending rigidity: X-ray reflectivity and diffuse scattering