Non-universal Casimir effect in saturated superfluid 4He films at Tλ

Measurements of Casimir effects in He films in the vicinity of the bulk superfluid transition temperature T have been carried out, where changes in the film thickness and the superfluid density are both monitored as a function of temperature. The Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid onset temperature in the film is found to occur just as the Casimir dip in the film thickness from critical fluctuations becomes evident. Additionally, a new film-thickening effect is observed precisely at T when the temperature is swept extremely slowly. We propose that this is a non-universal Casimir effect arising from the viscous suppression of second sound modes in the film. 4 λ

Third sound measurements of superfluid 4He films on multiwall carbon nanotubes below 1 K

Third sound is studied for superfluid films of 4He adsorbed on multiwall carbon nanotubes packed into an annular resonator. The third sound is generated with mechanical oscillation of the cell, and detected with carbon bolometers. A filling curve at temperatures near 250 mK shows oscillations in the third sound velocity, with maxima at the completion of the 4th and 5th atomic layers. Sharp changes in the Q factor of the third sound are found at partial layer fillings. Temperature sweeps at a number of fill points show strong broadening effects on the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition, and rapidly increasing dissipation, in qualitative agreement with the predictions of Machta and Guyer. At the 4th layer completion there is a sudden reduction of the transition temperature TKT, and then a recovery back to linear variation with temperature, although the slope is considerably smaller than the KT prediction