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We present an x-ray reflectivity study of wetting at the free surface of thebinary liquid metal gallium-bismuth (Ga-Bi) in the region where the bulk phaseseparates into Bi-rich and Ga-rich liquid phases. The measurements reveal theevolution of the microscopic structure of wetting films of the Bi-rich,low-surface-tension phase along different paths in the bulk phase diagram. Abalance between the surface potential preferring the Bi-rich phase and thegravitational potential which favors the Ga-rich phase at the surface pins theinterface of the two demixed liquid metallic phases close to the free surface.This enables us to resolve it on an Angstrom level and to apply a mean-field,square gradient model extended by thermally activated capillary waves asdominant thermal fluctuations. The sole free parameter of the gradient model,i.e. the so-called influence parameter, $\kappa$, is determined from ourmeasurements. Relying on a calculation of the liquid/liquid interfacial tensionthat makes it possible to distinguish between intrinsic and capillary wavecontributions to the interfacial structure we estimate that fluctuations affectthe observed short-range, complete wetting phenomena only marginally. Acritical wetting transition that should be sensitive to thermal fluctuationsseems to be absent in this binary metallic alloy.Comment: RevTex4, twocolumn, 15 pages, 10 figure

Short-range wetting at liquid gallium-bismuth alloy surfaces: X-ray measurements and square-gradient theory