Probing vortices in 4He nanodroplets

We present static and dynamical properties of linear vortices in 4He droplets obtained from density functional calculations. By comparing the adsorption properties of different atomic impurities embedded in pure droplets and in droplets where a quantized vortex has been created, we suggest that Ca atoms should be the dopant of choice to detect vortices by means of spectroscopic experiments.     

Pinning of quantized vortices in helium drops by dopant atoms and molecules

Using a density functional method, we investigate the properties of liquid 4He droplets doped with atoms (Ne and Xe) and molecules ( SF6 and hydrogen cyanide). We consider the case of droplets having a quantized vortex pinned to the dopant. A liquid-drop formula is proposed that accurately describes the total energy of the complex and allows one to extrapolate the density functional results to large N. For a given impurity, we find that the formation of a dopant+vortex+(4)He(N) complex is energetically favored below a critical size N(cr). Our results support the possibility to observe quantized vortices in helium droplets by means of spectroscopic techniques.     

Slow 4He quenches produce fuzzy, transient vortices

We examine the Zurek scenario for the production of vortices in quenches of liquid 4He in the light of recent experiments. Extending our previous results to later times, we argue that short wavelength thermal fluctuations make vortices poorly defined until after the transition has occurred. Further, if and when vortices appear, it is plausible that they will decay faster than anticipated from turbulence experiments, irrespective of quench rates.     

Magnetic trapping of silver and copper, and anomalous spin relaxation in the ag-he system

We have trapped large numbers of copper (Cu) and silver (Ag) atoms using buffer-gas cooling. Up to 3 x 10{12} Cu atoms and 4 x 10{13} Ag atoms are trapped. Lifetimes are as long as 5 s, limited by collisions with the buffer gas. Ratios of elastic to inelastic collision rates with He are >or=10{6}, suggesting Cu and Ag are favorable for use in ultracold applications. The temperature dependence of the Ag-3He collision rate varies as T;{5.8+/-0.4}. We find that this temperature dependence is inconsistent with the behavior predicted for relaxation arising from the spin-rotation interaction, and conclude that the Ag-3He system displays anomalous collisional behavior in the multiple-partial wave regime. Gold (Au) was ablated into 3He buffer gas, however, atomic Au lifetimes were observed to be too short to permit trapping.     

Ag8 fluorescence in argon

The fluorescence of Ag8 in an argon matrix and in argon droplets is reported. This is the first unambiguous assignment of the fluorescence of a metal cluster larger than the tetramer, indicating that the excited state lifetime is longer than previously thought. It is discussed as a possible result of a matrix cage effect. The excitation spectrum is compared with two-photon-ionization measurements of Ag8 in helium droplets and to known absorption data. The agreement is excellent. We propose that the excited states relax rapidly through vibrational coupling to a long-lived state, from which the fluorescence occurs.     

Nucleation and growth of bubbles in He ion-implanted V/Ag multilayers

Microstructures of He ion-implanted pure Ag, pure V and polycrystalline V/Ag multilayers with individual layer thickness ranging from 1?nm to 50?nm were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The bubbles in the Ag layer were faceted and larger than the non-faceted bubbles in the V layer under the same implantation conditions for both pure metals and multilayers. The substantially higher single defects surviving the spike phase and lower mobility of trapped He in bcc than those in fcc could account for this difference. For multilayers, the bubbles nucleate at interfaces but grow preferentially in Ag layers due to high mobility of trapped He in fcc Ag. In addition, the He concentration above which bubbles can be detected in defocused TEM images increases with decreasing layer thickness, from 0 for pure Ag to 4–5 at. % for 1?nm V/1?nm Ag multilayers. In contrast, the bubble size decreases with decreasing layer thickness, from approximately 4?nm in diameter in pure Ag to 1?nm in the 1?nm V/1?nm Ag multilayers. Elongated bubbles confined in the Ag layer by the V–Ag interfaces were observed in 1?nm multilayers. These observations show that bubble nucleation and growth can be suppressed to high He concentrations in nanoscale composites with interfaces that have high He solubility.     

Liquid-crystal defects and confinement in Yang-Mills theory

It has been shown that, in the Landau gauge of the SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, the residual global symmetry supports the existence of topological vortices which resemble disclination defects in nematic liquid crystals and Alice (half-quantum) vortices in superfluid ³He in the A-phase. The theory also possesses half-integer and integer-charged monopoles, which are analogous to the point-like defects in nematic crystal and in liquid helium. We argue that the deconfinement phase transition in the Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge is associated with the proliferation of these vortices and/or monopoles. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Pinning of texture and vortices of the rotating B-like phase of superfluid 3He confined in a 98% aerogel

We have investigated pinning effects on texture and vortices of the B-like phase of superfluid (3)He in a rotating aerogel up to +/-2pi rad/s by cw-NMR. We observed deformation of the NMR spectra in rotation, due to counterflow between the superflow and the normal flow. The average intensity of the counterflow was calculated from the change of NMR spectra. The rotation dependence of the counterflow intensity is similar to the magnetization curve of hard type II superconductors or the counterflow response of (4)He-II in packed powders. This counterflow behavior is in qualitative agreement with a model that vortices are pinned unless the counterflow exceeds a critical velocity v(c). The temperature independence of v(c) suggests that v(c) is associated with the expansion of primordial vortices.     

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.     

Vortices in Polar and β Phases of 3He

JETP Letters - Recently, a new topological phase of superfluid 3He called the β phase has been obtained by strong polarization of the nematic polar phase. We consider half-quantum vortices,...     

One-step, template-free route to silver porous hollow spheres and their optical property

Silver porous hollow spheres (SPHS) were fabricated via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis of aqueous solutions containing AgNO₃ and glucose. In the hot spherical liquid droplets, glucose, as reducing agent, reacted with Ag⁺ to form Ag nanoparticles, which subsequently moved to the periphery of the hot liquid droplets to form Ag nanoparticles-glucose hybrid shell. With the temperature further increased, aforementioned Ag nanoparticles melted to form Ag skeleton decorated with unreacted glucose, which converted to SPHS via dissolving unreacted glucose in water. Due to their porous hollow structures, SPHS exhibited a wide Vis-NIR adsorption in the range of 400-1100 nm.     

Ag－与He原子碰撞的单电子脱附截面的实验研究

 对Ag^-与He原子碰撞的单电子脱附过程进行了实验研究,使用增长率方法在5~10keV能量范围内对脱附截面进行了测量,得到在20keV时的典型值为6.6×10^-6 cm²。实验结果的不确定度约为8%。     

Ag－与He原子碰撞的单电子脱附截面的实验研究

对Ag-与He原子碰撞的单电子脱附过程进行了实验研究,使用增长率方法在5~10keV能量范围内对脱附截面进行了测量,得到在20keV时的典型值为6.6×10-6 cm2。实验结果的不确定度约为8%。     

Velocity statistics distinguish quantum turbulence from classical turbulence

By analyzing trajectories of solid hydrogen tracers, we find that the distributions of velocity in decaying quantum turbulence in superfluid 4He are strongly non-Gaussian with 1/v(3) power-law tails. These features differ from the near-Gaussian statistics of homogenous and isotropic turbulence of classical fluids. We examine the dynamics of many events of reconnection between quantized vortices and show by simple scaling arguments that they produce the observed power-law tails.     

Linear NMR in the Polar Phase of <Superscript>3</Superscript>He in Aerogel

³He is an example of the system with non-trivial Cooper paring. A few different superfluid phases are known in this system. Recently the new one, the polar phase, have been observed in ³He confined in nematically ordered aerogel. A number of various topological defects including half-quantum vortices can exist the polar phase. In this work, we present theoretical and numerical studies of linear nuclear magnetic resonance in the polar phase both in the uniform order-parameter texture and in the presence of half-quantum vortices.     

Formation times of RbHe exciplexes on the surface of superfluid versus normal fluid helium nanodroplets

Nanodroplets of either superfluid 4He or normal fluid 3He are doped with Rb atoms that are bound to the surface of the droplets. The formation of RbHe exciplexes upon 5P(3/2) excitation is monitored in real time by femtosecond pump-probe techniques. We find formation times of 8.5 and 11.6 ps for Rb 4He and Rb 3He, respectively. A comparison to calculations based on a tunneling model introduced for these systems by Reho et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 113, 9694 (2000)]] shows that the proposed mechanism cannot account for our findings. Apparently, a different relaxation dynamics of the superfluid opposed to the normal fluid surface is responsible for the observed formation times.     

Broken symmetries in the reconstruction of ν=1 quantum Hall edges

Spin-polarized reconstruction of the ν=1 quantum Hall edge is accompanied by a spatial modulation of the charge density along the edge. We find that this is also the case for finite quantum Hall droplets: current spin density functional calculations show that the so-called Chamon–Wen edge forms a ring of apparently localized electrons around the maximum density droplet (MDD). The boundaries of these different phases qualitatively agree with recent experiments. For very soft confinement, Chern–Simons Ginzburg–Landau theory indicates formation of a non-translational invariant edge with vortices (holes) trapped in the edge region.     

On the relative strength of He and H2 diffraction from Ag(111)

Under equivalent incident conditions, H₂ diffraction beams on Ag(111) have recently been observed to be about one order of magnitude stronger than He beams. We show that this effect can be attributed to details of the interaction, in particular, the exponential increase of the corrugation amplitude towards the surface. By extending a previously developed theory for the interaction between He and a metal surface, we show that the H₂Ag(111) repulsion is roughly 1.5 times larger than for He. However, the Van der Waals attraction is about three times stronger for H₂, so that the classical turning points of low-energy H₂ particles lie closer to the surface. Because of the stronger corrugation at short distances, H₂ diffraction intensities can be up to an order of magnitude larger than for He.     

Total Integration of the Sample Injection,Microdroplet Reaction,Phase Separation,Real-Time Optical Detection,and Recovery of Diverse Silver–Gold Bimetallic Nanoalloys in a Continuous Process

Microfluidic droplet generators have garnered great attention due to the uniformity, high-throughput capability, and facile experimental setup. To maximize the potentials of droplet technology as a chemical/biological nanoliter-scale reactor, the downstream processes such as separation of the aqueous and oil phase, real-time monitoring of the products formed in droplets, and the final product recovery from the droplets is necessary. In this study, the droplet is utilized as a chemical reactor to synthesize a variety of Ag and Au bimetallic nanoalloys in a fully integrated microsystem including sample injection, a T-junction droplet generator, droplet reaction, water–oil phase separation, real-time UV–vis absorbance detection, and product recovery. The flow rate of the Ag nanoparticle (NP) solution and the HAuCl₄ solution was tuned to generate different molar ratios of Ag and Au components. The in-line UV–vis absorbance spectrometer displays a peak shift of the Ag/Au bimetallic alloys depending on the molar ratio of Ag/Au in the continuous process, enabling to judge the kind of the Ag/Au alloys in situ and collect a variety of Ag/Au nanoalloys. Thus, the desired nanomaterials can be obtained with minimal trial and error, saving time and cost.     

Quantized vortices in mixed 3He-4He drops

Using density functional theory, we investigate the structure of mixed (3)He(N3)-(4)He(N4) droplets with an embedded impurity (Xe atom or HCN molecule) which pins a quantized vortex line. We find that the dopant+vortex+(4)He(N4) complex, which in a previous work [F. Dalfovo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1028 (2000)] was found to be energetically stable below a critical size N(cr), is robust against the addition of 3He. While 3He atoms are distributed along the vortex line and on the surface of the 4He drop, the impurity is mostly coated by 4He atoms. Results for N4 = 500 and a number of 3He atoms ranging from 0 to 100 are presented, and the binding energy of the dopant to the vortex line is determined.