Absence of low-temperature anomaly on the melting curve of <Superscript>4</Superscript>He

The melting pressure and pressure in the liquid at a constant density of ultrapure ⁴He (0.3 ppb of ³He impurities) have been measured with an accuracy of about 0.5 μbar in the temperature range from 10 to 320 mK. The measurements show that the anomaly on the melting curve below 80 mK, which was recently observed [I. A. Todoshchenko et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 165302 (2006)], is entirely due to an anomaly in the elastic modulus of Be-Cu from which our pressure gauge is made. Thus, the melting pressure of ⁴He follows the T ⁴ law due to phonons in the whole temperature range from 10 to 320 mK without any attribute of a supersolid transition. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Torsional oscillator and synchrotron X-Ray experiments on solid 4He in aerogel

X-ray diffraction experiments show that solid 4He grown in aerogel is highly polycrystalline, with an hcp crystal structure (as in bulk) and a crystallite size of approximately 100 nm. In contrast to the expectation that the highly disordered solid will have a large supersolid fraction, torsional oscillator measurements show a behavior that is strikingly similar to high purity crystals grown from the superfluid phase. The low temperature supersolid fraction is only approximately 3 x 10(-4), and the onset temperature is approximately 100 mK.     

Observation of classical rotational inertia and nonclassical supersolid signals in solid 4He below 250 mK

We have confirmed the existence, as first reported by Kim and Chan, of a supersolid state in solid 4He at temperatures below 250 mK. We have employed a torsional oscillator cell with a square cross section to insure a locking of the solid to the oscillating cell. We find that the nonclassical rotational inertia signal is not a universal property of solid 4He but can be eliminated through an annealing of the solid helium sample. This result has important implications for our understanding of the supersolid state.     

Pressure-driven flow of solid helium

The recent torsional oscillator results of Kim and Chan show an anomalous mass decoupling, interpreted by the authors as a supersolid phase transition, in solid (4)He. We have used a piezoelectrically driven diaphragm to study the flow of solid helium through an array of capillaries. Our measurements showed no indication of low temperature flow, placing stringent restrictions on supersolid flow in response to a pressure difference. The average flow speed at low temperatures was less than 1.2 x 10(-14) m/s, corresponding to a supersolid velocity at least 7 orders of magnitude smaller than the critical velocities inferred from the torsional oscillator measurements.     

Staircaselike suppression of supersolidity under rotation

There are a number of distinct signatures of superfluids, one of which is the appearance of quantized vortices. There have been some attempts to understand the putative supersolid 4He in the vortex framework, but no conclusive evidence that supports the existence of the vortices has been reported. Here, we investigate the rotation velocity dependence of the torsional oscillation of solid 4He at various temperatures. The velocity sweep reveals intriguing periodic staircaselike features below about 300 mK. The staircase patterns show remarkable periodicity, and we interpret these patterns as a consequence of vortex injection. However, there are some features that cannot be accounted for with simple injection of vortices into superfluid, and further investigation is required.     

Effect of 3He impurities on the nonclassical response to oscillation of solid 4He

We have investigated the influence of impurities on the possible supersolid transition in 4He by systematically enriching isotopically pure samples with 3He. The addition of 3He broadens the onset of nonclassical rotational inertia and shifts it to higher temperature, suggesting that the phenomenon is correlated with the condensation of 3He atoms onto the dislocation network in solid 4He.     

Quenched dislocation enhanced supersolid ordering

I show using Landau theory that quenched dislocations can facilitate the supersolid to normal solid transition, making it possible for the transition to occur even if it does not in a dislocation-free crystal. I make detailed predictions for the dependence of the supersolid to normal solid transition temperature T_{c}(L), superfluid density rho_{S}(T,L), and specific heat C(T,L) on temperature T and dislocation spacing L, all of which can be tested against experiments. The results should also be applicable to an enormous variety of other systems, including, e.g., ferromagnets.     

Freezing and pressure-driven flow of solid helium in Vycor

The recent torsional oscillator results of Kim and Chan suggest a supersolid phase transition in solid 4He confined in Vycor. We have used a capacitive technique to directly monitor density changes for helium confined in Vycor at low temperature and have used a piezoelectrically driven diaphragm to study the pressure-induced flow of solid helium into the Vycor pores. Our measurements showed no indication of a mass redistribution in the Vycor that could mimic supersolid decoupling and put an upper limit of about 0.003 microm/s on any pressure-induced supersolid flow in the pores of Vycor.     

Evidence for a Mott-Hubbard transition in a two-dimensional 3He fluid monolayer

The heat capacity and magnetization of a fluid 3He monolayer adsorbed on graphite plated with a bilayer of HD have been measured in the temperature range 1-60 mK. Approaching the density at which the monolayer solidifies into a sqrt[7]xsqrt[7] commensurate solid, we observe an apparent divergence of the effective mass and magnetization corresponding to a T=0 Mott-Hubbard transition between a 2D Fermi liquid and a magnetically disordered solid. The observations are consistent with the Brinkman-Rice-Anderson-Vollhardt scenario for a metal-insulator transition. We observe a leading order T2 correction to the linear term in heat capacity.     

Possible one-dimensional 3He quantum fluid formed in nanopores

Heat capacity measurements have been made down to 5 mK for 3He fluid films adsorbed in one-dimensional (1D) nanometer-scale pores, 28 A in diameter, preplated with 4He of 1.47 atomic layers. At low 3He density, the heat capacity shows a density-dependent, Schottky-like peak near 150 mK asymptoting to the value corresponding to a 2D Boltzmann gas at high temperatures. The peak behavior is attributed to the crossover from a 2D gas to a 1D state at low temperatures. The degenerate state of the 1D 3He fluid is indicated by a predominantly linear temperature dependence below about 30 mK.     

Nonlinear Wigner solid transport on the free surface of normal and superfluid 3He

We present measurements and a theoretical concept of the nonlinear transport in the two-dimensional Wigner solid on the free surface of normal and superfluid 3He. We have observed the transition from Ohmic to nonlinear transport over a wide temperature range, from 200 microK to 200 mK at low electron velocities. The field-velocity (E-nu) characteristics show a nonmonotonic structure with a particular local maxima. We attribute this nonlinearity to the velocity-induced deformation of the periodic surface displacement due to the extremely strong damping in Fermi-liquid 3He. The calculated E-nu curves and thresholds are in good agreement with experiment.     

Transport and percolation in a low-density high-mobility two-dimensional hole system

We present a study of the temperature and density dependence of the resistivity of an extremely high quality two-dimensional hole system grown on the (100) surface of GaAs. For high densities in the metallic regime (p > or approximately4x10;{9} cm;{-2}), the nonmonotonic temperature dependence ( approximately 50-300 mK) of the resistivity is consistent with temperature dependent screening of residual impurities. At a fixed temperature of T=50 mK, the conductivity versus density data indicate an inhomogeneity driven percolation-type transition to an insulating state at a critical density of 3.8x10;{9} cm;{-2}.     

Interaction of first and second sound in solid (4)He: properties of a possible Bose condensate

A previous experiment in this laboratory found that the addition of a few tens of parts per 10(6) of (3)He impurities to solid (4)He crystals resulted in a phase transition below 200 mK. In the experiment described here the interaction of acoustic waves with waves generated by heat pulses is measured and shows that there is an energy gap in the excitations of the high temperature phase and that coherent waves are carried by nonphonon excitations at the lowest temperatures.     

Temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth in the vortex state of the pyrochlore superconductor,Cd2Re2O7

We report transverse-field and zero-field muon spin rotation and relaxation studies of the superconducting rhenium oxide pyrochlore, Cd2Re2O7. Transverse-field measurements (H=0.007 T) show line broadening below T(c), which is characteristic of a vortex state, demonstrating conclusively the type-II nature of this superconductor. The penetration depth is seen to level off below about 400 mK (T/T(c) approximately 0.4), with a rather large value of lambda(T=0) approximately 7500 A. The temperature independent behavior below approximately 400 mK is consistent with a nodeless superconducting energy gap. Zero-field measurements indicate no static magnetic fields developing below the transition temperature.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of incommensurate solid 4He

It is pointed out that the simulation computation of energy performed so far cannot be used to decide if the ground state of solid 4He has the number of lattice sites equal to the number of atoms (commensurate state) or if it is different (incommensurate state). The best variational wave function, a shadow wave function, gives an incommensurate state, but the equilibrium concentration of vacancies remains to be determined. We have computed the one-body density matrix in solid 4He for the incommensurate state by means of an exact ground state projector method in which incommensurability occurs spontaneously. We find a vacancy induced Bose-Einstein condensation of about 0.23 atoms per vacancy at a pressure of 54 bar. This means that bulk solid 4He is supersolid at low enough temperature if the exact ground state is incommensurate.     

Probing the upper limit of nonclassical rotational inertia in solid helium 4

We study the effect of confinement on solid 4He's nonclassical rotational inertia fraction (NCRIF) in a torsional oscillator by constraining it to narrow annular cells of various widths. The NCRIF exhibits an observed maximum value of 20% for annuli of approximately 100 microm width. Samples constrained to porous media or to larger geometries both have smaller NCRIF, mostly below approximately 1%. In addition, we extend the blocked-annulus experiment of Kim and Chan to solid samples with large supersolid fractions. Blocking the annulus suppresses the nonclassical decoupling from 17.1% to below the limit of our detection of 0.8%. This result demonstrates the nonlocal nature of the supersolid phenomena. At 20 mK, NCRIF depends on velocity history showing a closed hysteresis loop in different thin annular cells.     

Measurement of the kinetic energy and lattice constant in hcp solid helium at temperatures 0.07-0.4 K

The single atom kinetic energy kappa of high purity solid hcp 4He has been measured by neutron Compton scattering, at temperatures between 0.07 and 0.4 K and a pressure of 40 bar. Within statistical error of approximately 2% no change in kappa was observed. The values of kappa at approximately 0.07 K were the same in a single crystal and a polycrystalline sample and were also unaffected (within statistical error) by the addition of 10 ppm of 3He. The lattice constant was also found to be independent of temperature to within 1 part in 2000. These results suggest that the supersolid transition in 4He has a different microscopic origin to the superfluid transition in the liquid.     

Oscillation frequency dependence of nonclassical rotation inertia of solid 4He

The nonclassical rotational inertia fraction of the identical cylindrical solid 4He below 300 mK is studied at 496 and 1173 Hz by a double resonance torsional oscillator. Below 35 mK, the fractions are the same at sufficiently low rim velocities. Above 35 mK, the fraction is greater for the higher than the lower mode. The dissipation peak of the lower mode occurs at a temperature approximately 4 mK lower than that of the higher mode. The drive dependence of the two modes shows that the reduction of the fraction is characterized by critical velocity, not amplitude or acceleration.     

Surface fluctuations of normal and superfluid 3He probed by Wigner solid dynamics

Electron scattering from surface fluctuations on normal and superfluid 3He has been measured by its effect on the linewidth of the low-wave-vector transverse magnetophonon mode of the electron crystal (the Wigner solid) floating on the helium surface. The relaxation rate becomes anomalously low below 70 mK, and reaches a plateau at about 3 times less than its expected value before dropping further at the superfluid transition. The absence of such anomalous behavior on 4He suggests that the effect is specific to liquid 3He.     

New evidence for zero-temperature relaxation in a spin-polarized fermi liquid

Spin-echo experiments are reported for 3He-4He solutions under extremely high B/T conditions, B=14.75 T and T>or=1.73 mK. The 3He concentration x(3) was adjusted close to the value x(c) approximately 3.8% at which the spin-rotation parameter muM0 vanishes. In this way the transverse and longitudinal spin-diffusion coefficients D( perpendicular ),D( parallel ) were measured while keeping |muM(0)|<1. It is found that the temperature dependence of D( perpendicular ) deviates strongly from 1/T(2), with anisotropy temperature T(a)=4.26(+0.18)(-0.44) mK. This value is close to the theoretical prediction for dilute solutions and suggests that spin current relaxation remains finite as the temperature tends to zero.