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Physics World

Supersolid is seen in the lab

Published Feb 1, 2004• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Physicists in the US believe they have created a new phase of matter by cooling helium-4 to ultracold temperatures. Eun-Seong Kim and Moses Chan of Pennsylvania State University say their "supersolid" behaves like a superfluid–a liquid that flows without resistance–yet it has all the characteristics of a crystalline solid. If confirmed, their results will mean that Bose–Einstein condensation has now been achieved in the gas, liquid and solid phases (Nature 427 225).

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/17/2/3

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Physicists in the US believe they have created a new phase of matter by cooling helium-4 to ultracold temperatures. Eun-Seong Kim and Moses Chan of Pennsylvania State University say their "supersolid" behaves like a superfluid–a liquid that flows without resistance–yet it has all the characteristics of a crystalline solid. If confirmed, their results will mean that Bose–Einstein condensation has now been achieved in the gas, liquid and solid phases (Nature 427 225).
The probable observation of a supersolid helium phase was recently reported by Kim {\it et al}. In this article, we confirm their speculation. Based on a theoretical model for solid helium-4, we show that the emergence of such a phase is inevitable. This is the first instance of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a solid. We calculate the BEC transition temperature (TcT_cTc​) and the Landau critical velocity (vcv_cvc​) from the model, which respectively are 215 mK and 251μms−1251 μ\rm{ms^{-1}}251μms−1. They are in excellent agreement with the experimental results; $T_c=$175 mK and vc≤300μms−1v_c \leq 300 μ\rm{ms^{-1}}vc​≤300μms−1. We also prove that our model possesses the necessary and sufficient condition for the emergence of supersolidity. We briefly comment about similar behaviour in 3^33He.
The earliest experiments on gaseous Bose–Einstein condensates established that they are coherent collections of atoms, all described by a single wavefunction—just like the known superfluids, liquid helium-4 and superconductors. It was natural to wonder if they would also exhibit some of the behavior that is so characteristic of those larger-scale Bose condensates, such as quantized circulation (vortices) or frictionless flow. Many theorists have proffered ideas on how one would produce vortices in a Bose–Einsten condensate and what their properties might be. One of those ideas has now been experimentally realized. The approach was suggested by James Williams and Murray Holland of JILA and implemented by their experimental colleagues there. (JILA is a jointly operated lab of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Williams is now at the University of Toronto.)
Quantum fluids are able to flow past obstacles without creating drag and through channels without any resistance. This superfluidity is a consequence of Bose–Einstein condensation, a process in which all the particles gather in the same, lowest-energy quantum state. At low flow velocities, energy exchanges between the obstacle and the fluid are forbidden because of the twin requirements of energy and momentum conservation. As the flow speed is increased, however, the superfluidity breaks down at some critical velocity above which excitations in the fluid can occur. These excitations can be phonons (i.e. quantized vibrations), vortices or, in the case of superfluid liquid helium, rotons (see Rotons: a low-temperature puzzle by Russell Donnelly Physics World February 1997 p25)
Cooling a Thermal Cloud to a SupersolidWhen a cloud of cold atoms goes through a supersolid phase transition, its coexisting superfluid and crystalline phases do not emerge simultaneously.By Chinmayee Mishra O bserving a supersolid-a state of matter that has both superfluid and solid properties-has been a challenge for decades.The constituent particles of a supersolid form a rigid, ordered structure but can also flow without dissipating energy.This paradoxical behavior was observed in cold-atom experiments only in the last five years [1-5].Researchers typically make cold-atom supersolids starting from superfluid phases, leaving open the question of how supersolidity appears from other phases.Now, a team led by Francesca Ferlaino at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, has shown that when starting from a thermal gas, a supersolid's crystalline and superfluid orders arrive and decay sequentually
The past two decades have seen great progress in our understanding of the properties of condensed helium 3. Research on He3 in our lab (see figure 1 for its modern form) began in 1958. At that time the properties of the more abundant isotope, helium 4, were rather well known: A phase transition at about 2 K transforms it from a normal liquid to a superfluid, a liquid that under some conditions will flow without viscous drag. The explanation for this behavior is rooted in concepts from the condensation of an ideal Bose–Einstein gas. But He3 obeys Fermi–Dirac statistics; would it show any likeness to a Fermi gas or liquid? Would it also exhibit a transition to superfluidity?
As was shown by Einstein in 1924, Bose-Einstein statistics gives rise to a phase transition in which a macroscopic part of a gaseous state condenses into a phase with ground state properties, offering a unique view on the behavior of matter at zero temperature. From the very start the nature of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has provoked statements concerning its relation with respect to superconductivity in electron gases (Einstein 1925) and the superfluidity of liquid helium (London 1938), but this connection is not easily grasped experimentally. Remarkably, although the concept of BEC appears routinely in very different contexts, ranging from excitons in semiconductors to nuclear matter, it had never been observed in its pure form, i.e., in a gaseous phase, until in 1995 BEC in ultracold Rb vapor was reported by Cornell and Wieman. Bose-Einstein condensation is probably the most exciting phenomenon currently under experimental investigation in ultracold atomic gases. In the tutorial the physics will be addressed which is at the roots of the current interest of BEC in atomic gases.