Helium adsorption on a lithium substrate

We report results of path integral Monte Carlo and density functional studies of ⁴He adsorption on a lithium substrate at low temperature. A recently proposed, accurate potential is used to model the ⁴He-substrate interaction. Results show evidence of continuous growth of a ⁴He film, with a superfluid monolayer at low coverage and no well-defined layering at higher coverages. Estimated superfluid transition temperatures exhibit a coverage dependence similar to that found in recent experiments of Csathy et al.