166 research outputs found
Microkelvin thermometry with Bose-Einstein condensates of magnons and applications to studies of the AB interface in superfluid He
Coherent precession of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates of magnons is a
sensitive probe for magnetic relaxation processes in superfluid 3He-B down to
the lowest achievable temperatures. We use the dependence of the relaxation
rate on the density of thermal quasiparticles to implement thermometry in 3He-B
at temperatures below 300 K. Unlike popular vibrating wire or quartz
tuning fork based thermometers, magnon condensates allow for contactless
temperature measurement and make possible an independent in situ determination
of the residual zero-temperature relaxation provided by the radiation damping.
We use this magnon-condensate-based thermometry to study the thermal impedance
of the interface between A and B phases of superfluid 3He. The magnon
condensate is also a sensitive probe of the orbital order-parameter texture.
This has allowed us to observe for the first time the non-thermal signature of
the annihilation of two AB interfaces.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, manuscript prepared for EU Microkelvin
Collaboration Workshop 2013. Accepted for publication in Journal of Low
Temperature Physic
Self-localization of magnon Bose-Einstein condensates in the ground state and on excited levels: from harmonic to box-like trapping potential
Long-lived coherent spin precession of 3He-B at low temperatures around 0.2
Tc is a manifestation of Bose-Einstein condensation of spin-wave excitations or
magnons in a magnetic trap which is formed by the order-parameter texture and
can be manipulated experimentally. When the number of magnons increases, the
orbital texture reorients under the influence of the spin-orbit interaction and
the profile of the trap gradually changes from harmonic to a square well, with
walls almost impenetrable to magnons. This is the first experimental example of
Bose condensation in a box. By selective rf pumping the trap can be populated
with a ground-state condensate or one at any of the excited energy levels. In
the latter case the ground state is simultaneously populated by relaxation from
the exited level, forming a system of two coexisting condensates.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Vortex-mediated relaxation of magnon BEC into light Higgs quasiparticles
A magnon Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in superfluid 3He is a fine instrument for studying the surrounding macroscopic quantum system. At zero temperature, the BEC is subject to a few distinct forms of decay into other collective excitations, owing to momentum and energy conservation in a quantum vacuum. We study the vortex-Higgs mechanism: The vortices relax the requirement for momentum conservation, allowing the optical magnons of the BEC to transform into light Higgs quasiparticles. This facilitates a direct measurement of the dimensions of the B-phase double-core vortex, providing experimental access to elusive phenomena, such as the Kelvin wave cascade and core-bound Majorana fermions. Our paper expands the spectrum of possible interactions between magnetic quasiparticles in 3He-BÂ and lays the groundwork for building magnon-based quantum devices
Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals
A time crystal is a macroscopic quantum system in periodic motion in its ground state. In our experiments, two coupled time crystals consisting of spin-wave quasiparticles (magnons) form a macroscopic two-level system. The two levels evolve in time as determined intrinsically by a nonlinear feedback, allowing us to construct spontaneous two-level dynamics. In the course of a level crossing, magnons move from the ground level to the excited level driven by the Landau-Zener effect, combined with Rabi population oscillations. We demonstrate that magnon time crystals allow access to every aspect and detail of quantum-coherent interactions in a single run of the experiment. Our work opens an outlook for the detection of surface-bound Majorana fermions in the underlying superfluid system, and invites technological exploitation of coherent magnon phenomena – potentially even at room temperature
Rotating quantum wave turbulence
Turbulence under strong influence of rotation is described as an ensemble of interacting inertial waves across a wide range of length scales. In macroscopic quantum condensates, the quasiclassical turbulent dynamics at large scales is altered at small scales, where the quantization of vorticity is essential. The nature of this transition remains an unanswered question. Here we expand the concept of wave-driven turbulence to rotating quantum fluids where the spectrum of waves extends to microscopic scales as Kelvin waves on quantized vortices. We excite inertial waves at the largest scale by periodic modulation of the angular velocity and observe dissipation-independent transfer of energy to smaller scales and the eventual onset of the elusive Kelvin wave cascade at the lowest temperatures. We further find that energy is pumped to the system through a boundary layer distinct from the classical Ekman layer and support our observations with numerical simulations. Our experiments demonstrate a regime of turbulent motion in quantum fluids where the role of vortex reconnections can be neglected, thus stripping the transition between the classical and the quantum regimes of turbulence down to its constituent components
Quasiparticle transport in a two-dimensional boundary superfluid
The B phase of superfluid 3He can be cooled into the "pure" superfluid
regime, characterised by negligible thermal quasiparticle density. Here, the
bulk superfluid is bounded by a two-dimensional quantum well at the boundaries
of the container, where creating quasiparticles requires much less energy. In
this Article, we carry out experiments where we create a non-equilibrium state
within the quantum well and show that the induced quasiparticle currents flow
diffusively in the two-dimensional system. We conclude that the bulk of
superfluid 3He is wrapped by an independent two-dimensional superfluid that
interacts with mechanical probes instead of the bulk superfluid, only providing
access to the bulk superfluid if given a sudden burst of energy. That is,
superfluid 3He at the lowest temperatures and applied energies is
thermo-mechanically two dimensional. Our work opens this two-dimensional
quantum condensate and the interface it forms between the observer and the bulk
superfluid for exploration, and provides the possibility of creating
two-dimensional condensates of arbitrary topology.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Thermal transport in nanoelectronic devices cooled by on-chip magnetic refrigeration
On-chip demagnetization refrigeration has recently emerged as a powerful tool
for reaching microkelvin electron temperatures in nanoscale structures. The
relative importance of cooling on-chip and off-chip components and the thermal
subsystem dynamics are yet to be analyzed. We study a Coulomb blockade
thermometer with on-chip copper refrigerant both experimentally and
numerically, showing that dynamics in this device are captured by a
first-principles model. Our work shows how to simulate thermal dynamics in
devices down to microkelvin temperatures, and outlines a recipe for a
low-investment platform for quantum technologies and fundamental nanoscience in
this novel temperature range.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
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