Low-temperature helium in bulk and in restricted geometries

Experiments with helium in thin films and small pores show that the bulk properties are greatly modified. With ⁴He, the onset of superfluidity is depressed and the specific heat anomaly is rounded and also depressed to lower temperatures. With ³He new features are found such as surface magnetism and free path effects. Bulk superfluid ⁴He is shown to have a sharp transition to turbulence, and bulk ³He the characteristics of a Fermi fluid.     

Pionic K X-rays in liquid He

Energies and lorentzian widths of pionic K X-ray transitions have been measured in liquid ³He with improved accuracy. The strong interaction on the π³He 1s level is found to be attractive and to produce an increase in the K transition energies of 34 ± 4 eV; the measured lorentzian width is 36 ±7 eV. Measured values are also presented for K X-ray energies in liquid π⁴He and μ⁴He, the lorentzian width of the 1s level in π⁴He, and relative intensities of K X-ray transitions in π³He, π⁴He and μ⁴He. The measurements are compared with those of others and with recent theoretical calculations.     

Spectroscopy of molecules in helium droplets

The work reviewed in the talk explores the possibilities of using molecules immersed in liquid helium as probes to study superfluidity on the microscopic level. For this purpose liquid ⁴He, ³He and mixed ⁴He/³He droplets consisting of 10³–10⁵ atoms have been doped with single molecules or a small defined number of molecules which form clusters in the droplet interior. The dopants were investigated with high-resolution optical spectroscopy. The electronic and rovibrational spectra show unusually sharp spectral lines and unexpected features such as a distinct gap between the zero phonon line and the phonon wing as well as the free rotations of single molecules. Both are not observed in colder nonsuperfluid ³He droplets and therefore are considered to be new microscopic manifestations of superfluidity. Spectroscopic studies of small p-H₂ and o-D₂ clusters surrounding a single chromophore molecule formed in the interior of the He droplets are also reported.     

一种可用于极化~3He实验的新型磁场系统

原子核自旋极化的~3He气体已被深入研究并广泛用于各种科学实验.在过去的极化~3He实验中,为了减小磁场梯度对纵向弛豫时间的影响,通常会建造大尺寸的亥姆霍兹线圈来提供所需均匀度的主磁场环境.本文通过计算得到了新的六正方形线圈系统,可以为极化~3He实验提供小型高均匀性的磁场装置.其中线圈系√统内部超过30%的区域磁场梯度满足(|▽B_x|~2+|▽B_y|~2)/B_0 10~(-4)cm~(-1),这一均匀区域比例超过了现在所有用于极化~3He实验的线圈装置.对于其他需要大均匀区域磁场环境的研究实验,新的六线圈系统也具有很好的应用价值.     

Optical interferometry in phase separated He---He mixture films

We report on interferometric studies of ³He---⁴He liquid mixtures. Anomalous wetting phenomena were observed in phase separated mixture films: the upper ³He-rich phase did not wet the lower ⁴He-rich phase under a small continuous feed of ⁴He atoms to the vapor phase. Instead, under this dynamic situation, floating pools of the ³He-rich phase were stabilized with a contact angle on the order of 10 mrad. In equilibrium, the concentrated ³He-rich phase was found to nucleate uniformly on the free surface, consistent with Antonow's rule.     

Decay Analysis of Ge Isotopes Formed in Reactions Induced by Tightly and Loosely Bound Projectiles

The dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) is employed to investigate the decay of ^68,70Ge^* compound nuclei formed respectively via tightly (⁴He) and loosely (⁶He) bound projectiles, using ⁶⁴Zn target. The study is carried out over a wide energy range (E_c.m.~5 MeV to 16 MeV) by including the quadrupole deformations (β2i) and optimum orientations (θ_i^opt) of the decaying fragments. The fusion cross-sections, obtained by adding various evaporation channels show nice agreement with the experimental data for ⁴He+⁶⁴Zn reaction. The contribution from competing compound inelastic scattering channel is also analyzed particularly for ⁶⁸Ge^* nucleus at above barrier energies. On the other hand, the decrement in the fusion cross-sections of ⁷⁰Ge^* nuclear system is addressed by presuming that ⁶⁵Zn ER is formed via two different modes:(i) the αn evaporation of ⁷⁰Ge^* nucleus, and (ii) 1n-evaporation of ⁶⁶Zn^* nuclear system, formed via breakup and 2n-transfer channels due to halo structure of the ⁶He projectile. Besides this, the suppression in 2np evaporation cross-sections suggests the contribution of another breakup and transfer process of ⁶He i.e. ⁴He+⁶⁴Zn. The contribution of breakup+transfer channels for ⁶He+⁶⁴Zn reaction is duly addressed by applying relevant energy corrections due to the breakup of " ⁶He" projectile into 2n and ⁴He. In addition to this, the barrier lowering, angular momentum and energy dependence effects are also explored in view of the dynamics of chosen reactions.     

Nonwetting of He and dilute He–He mixtures on Cs

For pure ⁴He on Cs a nonwet phase exists below ≈2 K but for dilute ³He–⁴He mixtures the wetting is reentrant. Measurements of the contact angle with dilute mixtures of liquid helium on Cs can be explained in detail in terms of ³He states together with ripplons at the Cs–He mixture interface, but it is impossible to account for the lower wetting temperatures or contact angles with only ³He states or ripplons. We discuss the influence of surface roughness of the Cs on the contribution of interface excitations to the free energy and suggest that the variety of contact angles found with different samples of Cs is due mainly to their degree of roughness.     

Adsorption of He on He crystal surfaces

We have compared the surface properties of crystals respectively grown from normal ⁴He containing 130 ppb of ³He and from ultrapure ⁴He (0.4 ppb). Below 0.4 K, ³He impurities are found to decrease both the surface tension and the step energy. Our results are consistent with the existence of two-dimensional bound states for ³He atoms at the solid-liquid interface. Quantitative agreement with the data is found with a binding energy _s ≈ 4.3 K and a ³He density saturating around 0.4 monolayer. The presence of steps is found to increase the binding energy by about 10 mK.     

Coherently precessing structure in a normal Fermi liquid

The analytic solution of the equations of spin hydrodynamics of a normal Fermi liquid, which describes a stationary precession of spins in a nonuniform magnetic field in the collisionless limit is discussed. This solution has a form of two domains with the opposite orientations of spins. The derived properties of such a structure agree qualitatively with the experimental data for liquid solutions of ³He in ⁴He and with the results of numerical simulations.     

The effect of a nitrogen-rich surface layer on the sub-surface deuterium (hydrogen) concentration distribution in titanium

Deuterium and nitrogen depth profiles in Ti with modified surfaces have been measured with Auger electron spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, and D(³He,p)⁴He nuclear reaction analysis. Nitrogen-rich surfaces layers of varying thicknesses were created on Ti by exposure to N₂ gas at 650°C. Deuterium loading was performed by exposure to 1 Torr of D₂ gas at 500°C. The deuterium distribution was influenced by nitrogen in the near-surface regions of all samples. Specifically, deuterium solubility was suppressed in surface regions of high (greater than 1%) nitrogen concentration. The deuterium solubility also remained low within the first few microns, well beyond the region of high nitrogen concentration. This effect is attributed to internal elastic stresses imposed by the non-deuterium absorbing nitrogen-rich layer on the Ti. These stresses prohibit the volume expansion associated with deuterium absorption. We estimate stresses on the order of 3–4 GPa are required to suppress the deuterium solubility to the values observed. The deuterium absorption kinetics were observed to depend systematically on the thickness of the nitrogen-rich layer. This is consistent with limited solubility near the surface or a surface poisoning effect influencing the overall deuterium diffusion from the gas phase into the Ti bulk.     

Multiquark cluster effect in a three-body system

The charge density of ³He was calculated in the hybrid quark-hadron model. The results clearly show that the multiquark cluster effect in ³He is most likely responsible for the observed central “hole” of ³He charge density.     

Adsorption and superfluid onset of He films on intermediate strength substrates

On strong binding substrates, such as graphite or mylar that are wetted by ⁴He at all temperatures, an adsorbed ⁴He film consists of 2 atomic layers of “inert” helium covered by a liquid layer that becomes superfluid via a Kosterlitz–Thouless (KT) transition. On weak substrates, for example cesium, superfluid onset above the wetting temperature also conforms to the KT picture. In contrast, superfluid onset on intermediate strength substrates, specifically heavier alkali metals and monolyer films of cesium on gold, deviates strongly from KT behavior. Here we describe superfluid onset of ⁴He on intermediate strength substrates and discuss the contributions of weak bindings and disorder to the non-KT behavior.     

Fluctuation effects in spin diffusion measurements in liquid He

We have measured spin diffusion coefficients of liquid ³He at a frequency of 920 kHz by pulsed NMR. By analyzing our data in the framework of the Leggett–Rice theory we got a spin diffusion coefficient and a Leggett–Rice parameter =λωτ simultaneously at each temperature. On approaching the superfluid transition the spin diffusion coefficients showed a deviation from predictions of the Fermi liquid theory. The deviation at low pressure was larger than that at high pressure. This anomaly may be due to the effects of fluctuations of superfluidity which were recently observed in the viscosity measurement of liquid ³He.     

Spin-wave reflection from an interface of two Fermi liquids

The boundary condition for the magnetization jump at an interface of two Fermi liquids and the spin current through the interface is rederived. With the use of the derived condition the coefficient of reflection of a spin wave from a boundary of two Fermi liquids for normal incidence is found and applied to the case of interface of phase separated liquid mixture of ³He in ⁴He. The effect of the phase separation boundary on the coherently precessing spin pattern is discussed.     

Nucleon-nucleon final-state interactions in the reactions He(p, d)2p, He(p, t)2p and He(p, He)pn

The energy spectra of deuterons, tritons and ³He particles from the reactions ³He(p, d)2p, ⁴He(p, t)2p and ⁴He(p, ³He)pn have been measured at angles between 6° and 60° lab. The ³He(p, d)2p reaction was studied at both 30.5 and 49.5 MeV incident proton energies, while the other two reactions were studied at 49.5 MeV only. The energy spectra are compared with calculations based on the Watson-Migdal model of final-state interactions.     

OSCILLATIONS DRIVEN BY 3He IN THE NUCLEAR REACTIONSYSTEM DISTURBED BY CONVECTIVE MOTION

The nuclear reactions in the solar interior are always influenced by the effects from convection, diffusion,pressure,gravitation,etc.,among which the convection is primarily responsible for driving the instability.On the basis of the charact eristic with which the particle number density of chemical compositions changes, we investigate the dynamical behaviors driven by ³He in the proton prot on nuclear reaction chain disturbed by convective motion with the aid of nonequi librium dynamics.The new supercritical oscillations of ³He are found in producing and destroying ³He in the nuclear reaction zone of the sun.The energy generation is therefore oscillating,and then this might change the predicted ⁸B and ⁷Be neutrino fluxes.     

Measurements of interaction cross sections and radii of He isotopes

Secondary beams of ³He, ⁴He, ⁶He, and ⁸He were produced through the projectile fragmentation of an 800 MeV/nucleon ¹¹B primary beam. Interaction cross sections (σ_I) of all He isotopes of 790 MeV/nucleon on Be, C, and Al targets were measured by a transmission-type experiment. The interaction nuclear radii of He isotopes R_I(He) = (σ_I/π)^1/2 − R _I(T) where R_I(T) is the radius of the target nucleus, have been deduced to be R_I(³He) = 1.59 ± 0.06 fm, R_I(⁴He) = 1.40 ± 0.05 fm, R_I(⁶He) = 2.21 ± 0.06 fm, and R_I(⁸He) = 2.52 ± 0.06 fm.     

Track detector study of fission of bismuth nuclei induced by He, radioactive He and Li ions

The cross-sections for fission of ²⁰⁹Bi induced by secondary beams of ⁶He by ⁴He and ⁷Li were measured. For the registration of fission fragments polyterephtalate plastic and muscovite mica detectors were used. In the case of the reaction of helium ions with bismuth the cross-section of the fission of ²⁰⁹Bi induced by ⁶He are significantly higher than the corresponding -particle-induced fission cross-section.     

Finite Size Effect in Path Integral Monte Carlo Simulations of 4He Systems

Path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations are a powerful computational method to study interacting quantum systems at finite temperatures. In this work, PIMC has been applied to study the finite size effect of the simulated systems of ⁴He. We determine the energy as a function of temperature at saturated-vapor-pressure (SVP) conditions in the temperature range of T∈[1.0 K, 4.0 K], and the equation of state (EOS) in the ground state for systems consisted of 32, 64 and 128 ⁴He atoms, respectively. We find that the energy at SVP is influenced significantly by the size of the simulated system in the temperature range of T∈[2.1 K, 3.0 K] and the larger the system is, the better results are obtained in comparison with the experimental values; while the EOS appeared to be unrelated to it.     

极化3He系统核磁共振FID信号的激光探测

极化率测量装置是极化³He系统的重要组成部分之一.本文介绍了一套在极化³He系统上搭建的激光探测自由感应衰减核磁共振（FID NMR）信号的实验装置,该装置有望为³He极化率的高精度实时测量提供新的途径.激光探测法的原理是法拉第旋光效应,该方法使用一束线偏振光探测极化³He磁矩绕主磁场进动的FID信号,实验结果表明相较于拾波线圈探测方法,激光探测方法的信噪比提高了106%,对³He的极化率测量更精确.该探测方法有望替代传统的拾波线圈,广泛地应用于³He极化系统的极化率测量或精密测量实验中.