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arXiv:2109.05618 · Physical Review Letters

Superfluid Helium Drops Levitated in High Vacuum

Charles Brown, Y. Wang, Mehdi Namazi, Glen I. Harris, Mehmet T. Uysal, Jack Harris

Published May 24, 2023• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate the trapping of millimeter-scale superfluid helium drops in high vacuum. The drops are sufficiently isolated that they remain trapped indefinitely, cool by evaporation to 330 mK, and exhibit mechanical damping that is limited by internal processes. The drops are also shown to host optical whispering gallery modes. The approach described here combines the advantages of multiple techniques, and should offer access to new experimental regimes of cold chemistry, superfluid physics, and optomechanics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.130.216001

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We demonstrate the trapping of millimeter-scale superfluid helium drops in high vacuum. The drops are sufficiently isolated that they remain trapped indefinitely, cool by evaporation to 330 mK, and exhibit mechanical damping that is limited by internal processes. The drops are also shown to host optical whispering gallery modes. The approach described here combines the advantages of multiple techniques, and should offer access to new experimental regimes of cold chemistry, superfluid physics, and optomechanics.
Free superfluid helium droplets constitute a versatile medium for a diverse range of experiments in physics and chemistry that extend from studies of the fundamental laws of superfluid motion to the synthesis of novel nanomaterials. In particular, the emergence of quantum vortices in rotating helium droplets is one of the most dramatic hallmarks of superfluidity and gives detailed access to the wave function describing the quantum liquid. This review provides an introduction to quantum vorticity in helium droplets, followed by a historical account of experiments on vortex visualization in bulk superfluid helium and a more detailed discussion of recent advances in the study of the rotational motion of isolated, nano- to micrometer-scale superfluid helium droplets. Ultrafast X-ray and extreme ultraviolet scattering techniques enabled by X-ray free-electron lasers and high-order harmonic generation in particular have facilitated the in situ detection of droplet shapes and the imaging of vortex structures inside individual, isolated droplets. New applications of helium droplets ranging from studies of quantum phase separations to mechanisms of low-temperature aggregation are discussed.
Silica microspheres behave as efficient optical microresonators when small-volume whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) are used. We have realized a cryogenic set-up to work with microspheres immersed in a superfluid helium bath. Quality factors up to 109 have been obtained at 2 K. In this environment, we have been able to observe a dispersive bistable behavior of the WGM resonances, due to the weak intrinsic Kerr optical nonlinearity of silica, with a threshold power of 10 (mu) W only. This result opens the way to the realization of thresholdless microlaser, based on a rare-earth doped silica microsphere and to other Cavity-QED projects with microspheres at low temperatures.
The long-term goal of this project is to study the nucleation of quantized vortices in helium II by investigating the behavior of rotating droplets of helium II in a reduced gravity environment. The objective of this ground-based research grant was to develop new experimental techniques to aid in accomplishing that goal. The development of an electrostatic levitator for superfluid helium, described below, and the successful suspension of charged superfluid drops in modest electric fields was the primary focus of this work. Other key technologies of general low temperature use were developed and are also discussed.
Nanoparticles levitated in high vacuum are isolated from the surrounding environment and thus can be used in various applications, including quantum physics research. We demonstrated optical levitation of a nanoparticle, which was trapped without cooling at a pressure of 4.5 × 10 −3 Pa, using a single aspheric lens with a large numerical aperture (= 0.9) and 1030-nm laser. We also activated parametric feedback cooling to trap the particle at a pressure of 5.8 × 10 −4 Pa. This experimental system will be useful for studying nanoparticles in ultrahigh vacuum and for building a mixed system with laser-cooled atoms.