Helium Mass Flow Through a Solid-Superfluid-Solid Junction

Zhi Gang Cheng, John Beamish, Andrew D. Fefferman, Fabien Souris, Sébastien Balibar, and Vincent Dauvois
Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 165301 – Published 22 April 2015
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Abstract

We report the results of flow experiments in which two chambers containing solid He4 are connected by a superfluid Vycor channel. At low temperatures and pressures, mechanically squeezing the solid in one chamber produced a pressure increase in the second chamber, a measure of mass transport through our solid-superfluid-solid junction. This pressure response is very similar to the flow seen in recent experiments at the University of Massachusetts: it began around 600 mK, increased as the temperature was reduced, then decreased dramatically at a temperature, Td, which depended on the He3 impurity concentration. Our experiments indicate that the flow is limited by mass transfer across the solid-liquid interface near the Vycor ends, where the He3 collects at low temperature, rather than by flow paths within the solid He4.

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  • Received 6 February 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.165301

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Zhi Gang Cheng* and John Beamish

  • Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1

Andrew D. Fefferman, Fabien Souris, and Sébastien Balibar

  • Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l’ENS, associé au CNRS et aux Universités Denis Diderot et Pierre et Marie Curie, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

Vincent Dauvois

  • DEN/DPC/SECR/LRMO, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France

  • *czg0629@gmail.com
  • Present address: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut Néel, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
  • Present address: Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1.

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Vol. 114, Iss. 16 — 24 April 2015

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