Abstract
We present experimental evidence that mercury forms an insulating phase in films condensed on glass substrates at liquid-helium temperatures. This insulating phase is metastable and it exists in films only up to some critical thickness ${\mathit{d}}_{\mathit{c}}$\ensuremath{\approxeq}60 \AA{}. Our results cannot be explained by the assumption that the films consist of isolated islands. We believe that similar insulating phases exist also in quench-condensed lead films and maybe in some other metals. As far as we know the possibility that a disordered system of metallic atoms may form an insulator has never been considered.
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