Modification of the 3He Phase Diagram by Anisotropic Disorder

Abstract

Motivated by the recent prediction that uniaxially compressed aerogel can stabilize the anisotropic A phase over the isotropic B phase, we measure the pressure dependent superfluid fraction of 3He entrained in 10% axially compressed, 98% porous aerogel. We observe that a broad region of the temperature-pressure phase diagram is occupied by the metastable A phase. The reappearance of the A phase on warming from the B phase, before superfluidity is extinguished at Tc, is in contrast to its absence in uncompressed aerogel. The phase diagram is modified from that of pure 3He, with the disappearance of the polycritical point (PCP) and the appearance of a region of A phase extending below the PCP of bulk 3He, even in zero applied magnetic field. The expected alignment of the A phase texture by compression is not observed.

4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted for review to PRL

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Neutron Stars in the Laboratory
• New Chiral Phases of Superfluid 3He Stabilized by Anisotropic Silica Aerogel
• The A-B transition in superfluid 3He under confinement in a thin slab geometry
• The Superfluid Glass Phase of 3He-A
• Superfluid phases of ${}^3$He in nano-scale channels
• Chiral Phases of Superfluid 3He in an Anisotropic Medium
• Superfluid 3He in Aerogel
• Stability of superfluid 3He-B in compressed aerogel
• Dissipation signatures of the normal and superfluid phases in torsion pendulum experiments with 3He in aerogel