Quantum frustration in the "spin liquid" phase of two-dimensional 3He

We have measured the ultralow temperature and low field magnetic susceptibility of the 4/7 phase of two-dimensional 3He adsorbed on graphite preplated by one layer of 4He. The experiments are performed by progressively adding 4He to the system, thus suppressing in a controlled way the 3He atoms trapped in substrate heterogeneities. This procedure enables us to determine the intrinsic properties of this spin 1/2 model magnet in the zero field limit. The results show quantitatively that the system is strongly frustrated by multiple spin exchange interactions. A characteristic gapped spin liquid behavior is observed at ultralow temperature.     

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.