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Pricaupenko, L.; Treiner, J.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.72.2215

Cited by 67 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…[4][5][6] Since the liquid-vapor surface tension of 3He is much smaller than that of 4He, 3He is expected to wet cesium down to zero temperature. 7 Despite the fact that there is no wetting transition in the 3He/Cs system, theoretical predictions indicate that wetting should occur via a prewetting transition, v In this case the prewetting line would not intersect the bulk coexistence line but would instead terminate at zero temperature at a chemical potential below coexistence. The theory of Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Adsorption of3He on cesium

et al. 1997

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Adsorption of3He on cesium

et al. 1997

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“…For quantitative analysis, we use a nonlocal density functional formalism previously used in the context of wetting phenomena [2,3] and of mixture films [4] in the limit of low He coverages. The ground state wave function of the He fluid is taken as a Slater determinant of single particle states 4 (n is a set of quantum numbers) while the He part is described by its density p4.…”

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confidence: 99%

Phase Separation of LiquidHe3-He
Pricaupenko
¹
,
Treiner
²

1995
Phys. Rev. Lett.
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46
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20
2
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We study the phase separation of helium mixtures inside thin channels in contact with a bulk 'He bath at zero temperature.It is found that the substrate potential favors mixing near the walls. While in bulk, the transition takes place between a He-rich mixture with 6.6% of He and pure 'He; in thin channels, the He-rich phase is richer in He and the He-rich phase contains a nonzero fraction of 4He. We anticipate that both phases can be superfluid, so that the superAuid line is detached from the coexistence region. The behavior of helium mixtures in porous aerogel is discussed in relation to the present findings.A mixture of liquid 3He and 4He is a fascinating binary fluid in which superfluid transitions and phase separations can be studied in a variety of situations. Recent experiments by Chan and collaborators [1]on helium mixtures in porous aerogel have lead to surprising new features which are not well understood. In the case of aerogel with 0.98 porosity, it is suggested that the phase diagram of 3He-4He mixtures is modified with respect to the bulk one. A new phase diagram is proposed for this system, in which the coexistence region is detached from the superfluid transition line, giving rise to an intriguing 3He-rich superfluid mixture. Experimental evidence for this phase appears to persist down to zero temperature, with a 4He concentration as large as 20%. In contrast, 4He atoms are known to be completely excluded from bulk liquid 3He.There are two ways by which the aerogel may affect the helium phase diagram, namely disorder and confinement.Disorder is produced by the random interconnections of the delicate silica strands, about 30 A in diameter, constituting the gel, leaving open spaces of various size in which the liquid is confined In the p. resent Letter, we will not discuss the effect of disorder and focus our interest essentially on the effect of confinement on the phase separation at zero temperature. In this exploratory study, we use a simple geometry and consider helium mixtures inside thin channels of various size. In aerogel with 0.98 open volume fraction the size of the large pores are of the order of a few hundred angstroms. One thus expects in those pores a bulk behavior. Since we are interested mainly in the 3He-rich phases, there is no 4He in the bulk, so that the 3He chemical potential p, 3 is fixed to its bulk value, i.e. , -2.49 K. In other words-! and this is an essential aspect of the present workwe look for mixtures in thin channels in thermodynamical equilibirum with bulk 3He. Our main result is that both the size of the channel and the strength of the substrate potential drive the phase separation. The implications are twofold: (i) In contradiction to a common belief based on comparing the zero point motion of a 3He and a He atom, the liquid in the vicinity of the substrate is not pure 4He, but a 3He-He mixture with comparable concentrations of both isotopes. (ii) With decreasing channel thickness, the phase separation involves at the transition a He-rich phase which gets richer in...

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“…Also it has been predicted that 3 He forms a prewetting layer of three monolayers on Cs. 12 Besides these interesting properties, Cs has a low electronic work function, w = 1.8 eV, which is in fact the lowest among those of all pure metals, so that photoelectrons can be emitted with visible light. This gives the possibility of measuring the electron-tunneling probability under well-defined conditions: If the Cs is illuminated with suitably low-energy photons, the photoelectrons must tunnel through the liquid helium film to escape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12, then the Cs surface remains bare until ⌬ increases to −0.2 K, and then the film thickness jumps to three monolayers. 12 After this jump, the thickness continuously increases as ⌬ increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron tunneling through barriers of adjustable width: Role of the image potential and the wetting behavior of Cs by He

et al. 2008

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Photocurrents from cesium, flowing through gaseous 3 He or 4 He and also through thin liquid helium films, are investigated as a function of the chemical potential of helium at T = 1.33 K. At low pressures, the two isotopes behave similarly as the photocurrent is governed by scattering by the gas. At higher pressures, a film of 3 He grows on the Cs and forms a tunnel barrier; but for 4 He, the film is too thin to form a tunnel barrier below liquid-vapor coexistence. This is because 4 He does not wet Cs at this temperature and the finite thickness needed to form a tunnel barrier is larger than the thickness of the thin-film state. 3 He enables a continuously variable tunnel barrier thickness to be studied. We show that the image potential is important and confirm that an electron in liquid 3 He has a potential energy of 1.0 eV. We find that the thickness d of a helium film is given by ⌬C 3 / d 3 =−k B T ln͑p / p 0 ͒ for films thicker than approximately three monolayers.

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Quantum prewetting transitions in liquidHe3

Cited by 67 publications

References 21 publications

Adsorption of3He on cesium

Adsorption of3He on cesium

Phase Separation of LiquidHe3-He
Pricaupenko
¹
,
Treiner
²

1995
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Self Cite
46
1
20
2
View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Electron tunneling through barriers of adjustable width: Role of the image potential and the wetting behavior of Cs by He

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Quantum prewetting transitions in liquidHe3

Cited by 67 publications

References 21 publications

Adsorption of3He on cesium

Adsorption of3He on cesium

Phase Separation of LiquidHe3-HePricaupenko1, Treiner2 1995Phys. Rev. Lett.Self Cite461202View full textAdd to dashboardCite

Electron tunneling through barriers of adjustable width: Role of the image potential and the wetting behavior of Cs by He

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Phase Separation of LiquidHe3-He
Pricaupenko
¹
,
Treiner
²

1995
Phys. Rev. Lett.
Self Cite
46
1
20
2
View full text Add to dashboard Cite