Evidence for a disorder driven phase transition in the condensation of 4He in aerogels

Abstract

We report on thermodynamic and optical measurements of the condensation process of ${}^4$He in three silica aerogels of different microstructures. For the two base-catalysed aerogels, the temperature dependence of the shape of adsorption isotherms and of the morphology of the condensation process show evidence of a disorder driven transition, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. This transition is not observed for a neutral-catalysed aerogel, which we interpret as due to a larger disorder in this case.

arXiv comment11 pages

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• Critical behavior of the liquid gas transition of 4 He confined in a silica aerogel
• Inverse transitions and disappearance of the λ-line in the asymmetric random field Ising and Blume-Capel models
• Recent topics on metastability, hysteresis, avalanches, and acoustic emission associated to martensitic transitions in functional materials