Interfacial Phase Transitions

The chapter on phase transitions at interfaces of conducting fluids includes phenomena such as prewetting and complete wetting, oscillatory wetting instabilities, and surface freezing. Systems of interest comprise fluid metals, alloys, and metal–molten salt solutions. Experimental investigations and model calculations of the last decade are presented. Among the surface and interfacial sensitive probes employed and developed in these measurements at elevated temperatures are capillary wave spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, X-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence diffraction, and electron spectroscopies.