Wetting in the presence of the electric field: The classical density functional theory study for a model system

We discuss the effect of an external electric field on the wetting of a solid surface by liquid. To this end, we use a model of the two-level-atom fluid for which the changes in interatomic interactions due to the presence of the field can be found using quantum-mechanical perturbation theory. Constructing the grand potential functional, we perform the standard calculations of Young’s equilibrium contact angle. The switching on of the electric field $|{\bf {E}}|

0$mayincreasenoticeablythecontactangle$\theta$.