Low frequency acoustics in solid 4^4He at low temperature

The elastic properties of hcp $^4$He samples have been investigated using low frequency (20 Hz to 20 kHz) high sensitivity sound transducers. In agreement with the findings of other workers, most samples studied grew very significantly stiffer at low temperature; Poisson's ratio $\nu$ was observed to increase from 0.28 below 20 mK to $\sim 0.35$ at 0.7 K. The span of the variation of $\nu$ varies from sample to sample according to their thermal and mechanical history. Crystals carefully grown at the melting curve show a different behavior, the change in $\nu$ taking place at lower $T$ and being more abrupt

Bottom-loading dilution refrigerator with ultra-high vacuum deposition capability

A Kelvinox 400 dilution refrigerator with the ability to load samples onto the mixing chamber from the bottom of the cryostat has been combined with an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) deposition chamber equipped with molecular beam sources. The liquid helium cooled sample transfer mechanism is used in a manner that allows films to be grown on substrates which are kept at temperatures of order 8K with chamber pressures in the 10^-9 to 10^-10 Torr range. This system facilitates the growth of quench-condensed ultrathin films which must always be kept below ~ 12K in a UHV environment during and after growth. Measurements can be made on the films down to millikelvin temperatures and in magnetic fields up to 15 T.Comment: 10 pages text, 1figur

Rayleigh-Taylor instability of crystallization waves at the superfluid-solid 4He interface

At the superfluid-solid 4He interface there exist crystallization waves having much in common with gravitational-capillary waves at the interface between two normal fluids. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability is an instability of the interface which can be realized when the lighter fluid is propelling the heavier one. We investigate here the analogues of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability for the superfluid-solid 4He interface. In the case of a uniformly accelerated interface the instability occurs only for a growing solid phase when the magnitude of the acceleration exceeds some critical value independent of the surface stiffness. For the Richtmyer-Meshkov limiting case of an impulsively accelerated interface, the onset of instability does not depend on the sign of the interface acceleration. In both cases the effect of crystallization wave damping is to reduce the perturbation growth-rate of the Taylor unstable interface.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, RevTe

Hydrodynamic instability during non-uniform growth of a helium crystal

We analyze an analog of the hydrodynamic Rayleigh-Taylor instability for the liquid-solid phase interface under non-uniform growth of the solid phase. The development of the instability starts on conditions of an accelerated interface growth and if the magnitude of acceleration exceeds some critical value. The plane and spherical shapes of the interface are considered. The observation of the instability can be expected for helium crystals in the course of their abnormal fast growth.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, 3 figure

On the spectrum of facet crystallization waves at the smooth 4He crystal surface

The wavelike processes of crystallization and melting or crystallization waves are well known to exist at the 4He crystal surface in the rough state. Much less is known about crystallization waves for the 4He crystal surface in the smooth well-faceted state below the roughening transition temperature. To meet the lack, we analyze here the spectrum of facet crystallization waves and its dependence upon the wavelength, perturbation amplitude, and the number of possible facet steps distributed somehow over the wavelength. All the distinctive features of facet crystallization waves from conventional waves at the rough surface result from a nonanalytic cusplike behavior in the angle dependence for the surface tension of smooth crystal facets.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl