We have measured the heat capacity of submonolayers of
4He adsorbed on Ag films between 1.7 and 3.3 K. Good fits to the results are obtained with a model of a noninteracting two-dimensional Bose gas. The sticking probability for room-temperature
4He atoms on cold Ag has been measured as a function of substrate temperature and
4He coverage. The sticking probability is 4% at low coverage, and abruptly drops to 1% for coverages above 0.5 monolayer.
We study the kinetics of condensation in a trapped two-dimensional exciton gas using the quantum Boltzmann equation. We assume that the exciton gas interacts with a lattice that is kept at a constant temperature. Our simulations allow us to estimate and compare the condensation time for Bose gases with and without interactions. We find that anti-Stokes Raman-type two-phonon processes dominate the relaxation rate of low-energy states for a noninteracting gas. The presence of dissipation from the low-energy states results in a heating effect for the exciton gas which in turn increases the mean number of Bose particles required for the onset of condensation. Our results indicate that the condensation time scale in trapped two-dimensional excitons is determined by the phonon emission rate into the ground state. This time scale is orders of magnitude shorter than what is predicted for three-dimensional excitons. The steady state in a dissipative gas is a nonequilibrium condensate, or equivalently an exciton matter laser, where the exciton temperature remains above the lattice temperature.