Search results for "liquid helium"
showing 10 items of 54 documents
Velocity of the fourth sound in liquid helium II via extended thermodynamics
2003
This work continues a study begun in previous works, where, using Extended Thermodynamics, a monofluid model of liquid helium II is formulated. The wave propagation in bulk liquid helium II is studied in the hypothesis that the thermal dilatation is not zero. The propagation of fourth sound, studied previously neglecting both the thermal dilatation and finite volume of the powder, is studied without these simplified hypotheses: a scattering correction n is introduced to take into account the porosity. The model is more general than the standard two-fluid model because it allows that a small amount of entropy is associated with helium when it flows through a very thin capillary or a porous m…
Thermal nucleation of cavities in liquid helium at negative pressures
1993
We have investigated the nucleation rate at which cavities are formed in $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ at negative pressures due to thermal fluctuations. To this end, we have used a density functional that reproduces the He liquid-gas interface along the coexistence line. The inclusion of thermal effects in the calculation of the barrier against nucleation results in a sizable decrease of the absolute value of the tensile strength above 1.5 K.
Transition to superfluidity in liquid 4He
2012
In this work the transition from normal liquid helium I to superfluid liquid helium II, controlled by temperature and pressure, is studied in the simplified assumption of absence of viscosity. A macroscopic thermodynamical model is presented, which chooses as new independent fields the heat flux q and a phase field function f. For the heat flux a modification of Cattaneo equation is written, while for the function f a time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation is proposed.
Phase transition and lambda-line in liquid helium
2013
A hydrodynamical model describing the superfluid phase transition of 4He close to $\lambda$-line is presented. In the work, which generalizes a phase field model of lambda transition previously formulated by the same authors, the independent fields are the density, the temperature, the velocity, the heat flux and a scalar function $f$, linked to the modulus of the wave-function $\psi$, solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equation. In this framework, the heat flux is given by a modified Maxwell-Cattaneo equation. The restrictions on the constitutive quantities are obtained from the entropy principle, using the Liu method of Lagrange multipliers. A maximum theorem is proved that allows the model …
Dielectric relaxation of space charges and polarons in ferroelectric perovskites
2001
Abstract In all ferroelectric perovskites, intentionally introduced or “unwanted” point defects do play a role in the dielectric spectra and in the conductivity. Above room temperature, space charge relaxation at the electrodes interfaces are observed. This can be of interest in the context of the nowadays applications of ferroelectric thin films. At liquid helium temperatures much more localised dielectric relaxation occurs. Special emphasis will be brought on SrTiO3 which has received renewed interest at the beginning of the nineties and for which a wealth of reliable experimental data are available. Considering that a gradual freezing of polarized objects is occurring at low temperatures…
Hydrogen and helium films as model systems of wetting
1997
Optical experiments on the wetting properties of liquid 4He and molecular hydrogen are reviewed. Hydrogen films on noble metal surfaces serve as model systems for studying triple point wetting, a continuous transition between wetting and non-wetting. By means of optically excited surface plasmons, the adsorbed film thickness for temperatures around, and far below, the bulk melting temperature is measured, and the physical mechanisms responsible for the transition are elucidated. Possible applications for other experiments in pure and applied research are discussed. Thin films are droplets of liquid helium are studied on cesium surfaces, on which there is a first order wetting transition. Ou…
Production of zero energy radioactive beams through extraction across superfluid helium surface
2003
A radioactive Ra-223 source was immersed in superfluid helium at 1.2-1.7 K. Electric fields transported recoiled Rn-219 ions in the form of snowballs to the surface and further extracted them across the surface. The ions were focussed onto an aluminium foil and alpha particle spectra were taken with a surface barrier spectrometer. This enabled us to determine the efficiency for each process unambiguously. The pulsed second sound wave proved effective in enhancing the extraction of positive ions from the surface. Thus we offer a novel method for study of impurities in superfluid helium and propose this method for production of zero energy nuclear beams for use at radioactive ion beam facilit…
Extraction of radioactive positive ions across the surface of superfluid helium: A new method to produce cold radioactive nuclear beams
2003
Alpha-decay recoils 219Rn were stopped in superfluid helium and positive ions were extracted by electric field into the vapour phase. This first quantitative observation of extraction was successfully conducted using highly sensitive radioactivity detection. The efficiency for extraction across the liquid surface was 23 ± 4% at 1.60 K, the release time was 90 ± 10 ms at 1.50 K and the barrier for positive ions through a free superfluid-helium surface was 19.4 ± 4.5 K. The pulsed second sound proved to be effective in enhancing the extraction.
Near-Infrared Spectra of Water Confined in Silica Hydrogels in the Temperature Interval 365−5 K
2002
We have used a sol−gel technique to obtain optically transparent hydrogels in which water is trapped within a tridimensional disordered silica matrix. A suitable aging of these hydrogels enables to have transparent noncracking samples down to cryogenic temperatures. We report the optical absorption spectra, in the near-infrared region, of water trapped in our silica hydrogels, measured in the temperature range 365−5 K, and we compare them with the same spectra of liquid water, measured in the temperature range 365−263 K. The data show that it is possible to have noncrystallizing water even at 5 K: indeed, the overtone bands at ∼1.41 μm and at ∼1.155 μmtypical of “weakly bonded” water molec…
Measurement of the velocity and attenuation of fourth sound in helium II
1979
The velocity and the attenuation of fourth sound have been measured in liquid helium at temperatures between 0.8 K and the λ point, along the vapor pressure curve. The measurements were made using the resonance technique and the helium was contained between small pores in packed powder specimens. From the velocity, it could be determined that the sound propagates under “adiabatic” conditions. According to theory, the attenuation of fourth sound consists of two contributions: surface losses due to heat exchange with the resonator body and volume losses due to dissipative processes associated with the viscosity coefficients η and ζ3. The results of our attenuation measurements are in agreemen…