Low-dimension helium superfluid on carbon nanotube
Résumé
When cooling Helium-4 atoms at very low temperature the system becomes superfluid, a quantum state of matter. Remarkably, this property is conserved even when the thickness of the Helium film is reduced down to few atoms thick only. The study of 2D helium films has led to several breakthrough in condensed matter physics including the study of third sound and topological phase transitions, the latter being rewarded by the 2016 Nobel Prize.
Up to now, most experimental studies focused on large scale substrates, such as mm2 scale grafoil plates or Mylar. Recent advances in the field of optomechanics and nanomechanics now opens up the possibility to study fluids and superfluids of smaller dimensions.
I will present our recent experiments on helium films growed on individual carbon nanotube, and probed through the mechanical vibrations of the nanotube. We observed a strong discontinuity in the adsorption of He on the nanotube surface, that we attributed to a layering transition. In addition, the low-temperature dependence of the mechanical mode of the nanotube exhibit a mode softening. Thanks to the tunability of the nanotube resonator, we confirmed the spring nature of this effect and drawn a link with the propagation of third sound in He 2D films.