ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Neutron reflectometry from surface of liquid 3He/4He film on silicon wafer

Abstract: As it was predicted theoretically by Andreev at zero temperature for dilute 3He in 4He mixtures, 3He atoms will form a 2D Fermi liquid at liquid helium surface. Direct experimental observation of a 3He nano-layer on the surface of a weak 3He/4He mixture has not been achieved, and today no information is available about the distribution of 3He near the helium surface. In our earlier experiments (RB1010049 and RB1120146) we have shown that at low temperature reflectometry data demonstrate accumulation of 3He atoms near liquid helium surface. However we failed to analyse the data analytically by comparison with neutron reflection model because of significant optical distortions caused by liquid He meniscus. Here we propose experiment which will allow us to eliminate meniscus effect. In this set-up we will produce ~ 1000A superfluid helium film on atomically smooth silicon wafer.

Principal Investigator: Dr Oleg Kirichek
Experimenter: Professor Sean Langridge
Experimenter: Professor Peter McClintock
Experimenter: Dr Timothy Charlton
Experimenter: Dr Christy Kinane

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1510035

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1510035

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Oleg Kirichek et al; (2016): Neutron reflectometry from surface of liquid 3He/4He film on silicon wafer, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1510035

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.