Search results for "superfluid helium."

Observation of a superfluid component within solid helium.

2011

We demonstrate by neutron scattering that a localized superfluid component exists at high pressures within solid helium in aerogel. Its existence is deduced from the observation of two sharp phonon-roton spectra which are clearly distinguishable from modes in bulk superfluid helium. These roton excitations exhibit different roton gap parameters than the roton observed in the bulk fluid at freezing pressure. One of the roton modes disappears after annealing the samples. Comparison with theoretical calculations suggests that the model that reproduces the observed data best is that of superfluid double layers within the solid and at the helium-substrate interface.

2021

Previously, rotons were observed in correlated quantum systems at low temperatures, including superfluid helium and Bose-Einstein condensates. Here, following a recent theoretical proposal, we repo...

Turbulent Superfluid Profiles in a Counterflow Channel

2010

We have developed a two-dimensional model of quantised vortices in helium II moving under the influence of applied normal fluid and superfluid in a counterflow channel. We predict superfluid and vortex-line density profiles which could be experimentally tested using recently developed visualization techniques.

Refrigeration bound of heat-producing cylinders by superfluid helium

2019

In this paper we go ahead in our studies on refrigeration of nanosystems by superfluid helium, as an appealing subject for future applications to computers or astronautical precision nanodevices. We first recall the effective thermal conductivity in laminar counterflow superfluid helium through arrays of mutually parallel cylinders and we discuss the conditions for the appearance of quantum turbulence around the heat-producing cylinders. We then consider the cooling of an array of heat-producing cylindrical nanosystems by means of superfluid-helium counterflow. We discuss the upper bound on heat removal set by avoidance of quantum turbulence and avoidance of phase transition to normal He I,…

K-ϵ-L model in turbulent superfluid helium

2020

We generalize the K−ϵ model of classical turbulence to superfluid helium. In a classical viscous fluid the phenomenological eddy viscosity characterizing the effects of turbulence depends on the turbulent kinetic energy K and the dissipation function ϵ, which are mainly related to the fluctuations of the velocity field and of its gradient. In superfluid helium, instead, we consider the necessary coefficients for describing the effects of classical and quantum turbulence, involving fluctuations of the velocity, the heat flux, and the vortex line density of the quantized vortex lines. By splitting the several fields into a time-average part and a fluctuating part, some expressions involving t…

Effective thermal conductivity of superfluid helium in short channels

2014

The aim of this paper is to explore how the effective thermal conductivity of small channels filled with superfluid helium II in the laminar regime separates from the classical Landau expression as the channel becomes shorter. The Landau expression is valid for fully developed Poiseuille flow for the normal component, and therefore is suitable for long channels. By taking into account entrance effects, we show a transition from a heat flux proportional to ∆T /l (Landau regime) for long channels, to a heat flux proportional to l^(1/3) (∆T /l)^(2/3) for short channels.

Thermodynamics of computation and linear stability limits of superfluid refrigeration of a model computing array

2019

We analyze the stability of the temperature profile of an array of computing nanodevices refrigerated by flowing superfluid helium, under variations in temperature, computing rate, and barycentric velocity of helium. It turns out that if the variation in dissipated energy per bit with respect to temperature variations is higher than some critical values, proportional to the effective thermal conductivity of the array, then the steady-state temperature profiles become unstable and refrigeration efficiency is lost. Furthermore, a restriction on the maximum rate of variation in the local computation rate is found.

Nonlinear Kelvin waves on a quantized vortex line in superfluid helium

2013

In this paper we show an exact solution (Kelvin wave) of an approximated dynamical equation for a quantized vortex line in helium superfluid at finite temperature. It is shown that the applied heat flux interacts with the vortex line, and the amplitude of the Kelvin wave can grow (the so-called Donnelly instability) or decrease according with the mutual direction between heat flux and wave vector.

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.