Helium adsorption on a lithium substrate

We report results of path integral Monte Carlo and density functional studies of He-4 adsorption on a lithium substrate at low temperature. A recently proposed, accurate potential is used to model the He-4-substrate interaction. Results show evidence of continuous growth of a He-4 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.