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NMR on superfluid3He in aerogel

  • Plenary and Invited Papers
  • Quantum Fluids and Solids
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Czechoslovak Journal of Physics Aims and scope

Abstract

The transition to superfluidity of3He in high porosity (98.2%) acrogel has been observed by nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The onset of the transition at all pressures above 13 bar is marked by a sharp increase in NMR frequency similar to that observed in bulk3He-A. This suggests that the aerogel/superfluid phase is highly homogeneous although both the transition temperature, Tc, and the amplitude of the order parameter are substantially suppressed. The acrogel strands are ≈ 50Å in diameter, much smaller than the superfluid coherence length. Consequently, we have attempted to interpret our observations as an impurity scattering problem. Based on our measurements of the magnetic field dependence of Tc it appears that both magnetic and potential scattering play important roles where the magnetic scattering can be associated with solid3He on the aerogel surface. This is determined by isotopic exchange with4He, a process which appears to stabilize a new superfluid state similar to the bulk B-phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Northwestern University, 60208, Evanston, IL, USA

    W. P. Halperin, D. T. Sprague, T. M. Haard, J. B. Kycia, Y. Lee & M. R. Rand

Authors
  1. W. P. Halperin
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  2. D. T. Sprague
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  3. T. M. Haard
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  4. J. B. Kycia
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  5. Y. Lee
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  6. M. R. Rand
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Additional information

This research was supported by the NSF through grant DMR 93-14025.

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Halperin, W.P., Sprague, D.T., Haard, T.M. et al. NMR on superfluid3He in aerogel. Czech J Phys 46 (Suppl 6), 2989–2994 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02548101

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02548101

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