Field-induced structural aging in glasses at ultra low temperatures

In non-equilibrium experiments on the glasses Mylar and BK7, we measured the excess dielectric response after the temporary application of a strong electric bias field at mK--temperatures. A model recently developed describes the observed long time decays qualitatively for Mylar [PRL 90, 105501, S. Ludwig, P. Nalbach, D. Rosenberg, D. Osheroff], but fails for BK7. In contrast, our results on both samples can be described by including an additional mechanism to the mentioned model with temperature independent decay times of the excess dielectric response. As the origin of this novel process beyond the "tunneling model" we suggest bias field induced structural rearrangements of "tunneling states" that decay by quantum mechanical tunneling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted at PRL, corrected typos in version

A Model for Solid 3^3He: II

We propose a simple Ginzburg-Landau free energy to describe the magnetic phase transition in solid $^3$He. The free energy is analyzed with due consideration of the hard first order transitions at low magnetic fields. The resulting phase diagram contains all of the important features of the experimentally observed ph ase diagram. The free energy also yields a critical field at which the transition from the disordered state to the high field state changes from a first order to a second order one.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physics. Use regular Tex, with the D. Eardley version of Macros called jnl.tex. 10 pages, 4 figs available from [email protected]

Ulta-Low Temperature Properties of Amorphous and Glassy Materials

During the grant period we made detailed studies of the dynamics of two level tunneling systems in glasses at very low temperature and by the application of AC and DC electric fields. Models have been developed that now account for both the formation and subsequent breaking of resonant tunneling pairs, and strongly bound pairs in a swept electric field. Perhaps most importantly, we saw a critical field in the polymeric glass Mylar, beyond which recovery following the application of a strong electric field is substantially modified from the predictions of current models. It was essential during the final grant period to see how general these new properties were by testing for them in a new and broader set of glasses. At the same time, the discovery that tunneling systems with nuclei possessing electric quadrupole moments that couple the TS behavior to magnetic fields was studied in this laboratory, using some of the probes that we alone employ. Finally, we were developing our own dielectric pulsed echo system, operating for the first time at the low energy splittings and hence temperatures at which interactions between TS are important. We combined this technique with the sudden application of both electric and strain fields to better understand the dynamics of the response of TS in glasses on a much shorter time scale than is possible with our established probes

Superfluidez en el 3he: el descubrimiento y la explicación

Al comenzar a escribir esta charla me acuerdo de la excitación general que permeaba el campo de la física de bajas temperaturas en 1971. Se habían desarrollado nuevas tecnologías de enfriamiento, y todos sentían que una física nueva, interesante e importante, estaba esperando ser descubierta en el mundo de las temperaturas ultrabajas para ser accesible el estudio a través de estas técnicas

La superfluidez en el 3he: el descubrimiento visto a través de los ojos de un estudiante de postgrado

Como un estudiante graduado a mediados de los años 60, fui atraído a la física de bajas temperaturas por las nuevas y poderosas tecnologías de enfriamiento que se estaban desarrollando por ese entonces. Yo estaba seguro que estas tecnologías nos permitirían ver el comportamiento de la naturaleza desde un nuevo punto de vista, y que esto llevaría a una ciencia nueva e importante

Phase Transitions in liquid Helium 3

The phase transitions of liquid Helium 3 are described by truncations of an exact nonperturbative renormalization group equation. The location of the first order transition lines and the jump in the order parameter are computed quantitatively. At the triple point we find indications for partially universal behaviour. We suggest experiments that could help to determine the effective interactions between fermion pairs.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, LaTe

Dynamic generation of spin orbit coupling

Spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in determining the properties of solids, and is crucial for spintronics device applications. Conventional spin-orbit coupling arises microscopically from relativistic effects described by the Dirac equation, and is described as a single particle band effect. In this work, we propose a new mechanism in which spin-orbit coupling can be generated dynamically in strongly correlated, non-relativistic systems as the result of fermi surface instabilities in higher angular momentum channels. Various known forms of spin-orbit couplings can emerge in these new phases, and their magnitudes can be continuously tuned by temperature or other quantum parameters.Comment: Accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett., 4 pages, 1 figur

Strong orientational effect of stretched aerogel on the 3He order parameter

Deformation of aerogel strongly modifies the orientation of the order parameter of superfluid 3He confined in aerogel. We used a radial squeezing of aerogel to keep the orbital angular momentum of the 3He Cooper pairs in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. We did not find strong evidence for a "polar" phase, with a nodal line along the equator of the Fermi surface, predicted to occur at large radial squeezing. Instead we observed 3He-A with a clear experimental evidence of the destruction of the long-range order by random anisotropy -- the Larkin-Imry-Ma effect. In 3He-B we observed and identified new modes of NMR, which are impossible to obtain in bulk 3He-B. One of these modes is characterized by a repulsive interaction between magnons, which is suitable for the magnon Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revtex, submitted to PR