Dynamics and hysteresis of the contact line between liquid hydrogen and cesium substrates

We have measured both the hysteresis and the dynamics of the edge of a liquid hydrogen meniscus on several solid cesium substrates. We find that the dynamics of the contact line is thermally activated. For all substrates, we find that the activation energy is of the order of the hysteresis. We show that the pinning of the contact line on mesoscopic defects of the Cs substrate is likely to control both the hysteresis and the dynamics of the contact line at low velocity, close to the depinning threshold. Such a mechanism could be relevant also for simple room-temperature systems.