Evidence for a Spatially Modulated Superfluid Phase of 3He under Confinement

Lev Levitin, Benjamin Yager, Laura Sumner, Brian Cowan, Andrew Casey, John Saunders, Nikolay Zhelev, Robert Bennett, Jeevak Parpia

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Abstract

In superfluid 3He−B confined in a slab geometry, domain walls between regions of different order parameter orientation are predicted to be energetically stable. Formation of the spatially modulated superfluid stripe phase has been proposed. We confined 3He in a 1.1  μm high microfluidic cavity and cooled it into the B phase at low pressure, where the stripe phase is predicted. We measured the surface-induced order parameter distortion with NMR, sensitive to the formation of domains. The results rule out the stripe phase, but are consistent with 2D modulated superfluid order.
Original languageEnglish
Article number085301
Pages (from-to)1-6
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume122
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Feb 2019

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