Phase diagram of the topological superfluid 3He confined in a nanoscale slab geometry.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23687043.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.1233621.
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Abstract
The superfluid phases of helium-3 ((3)He) are predicted to be strongly influenced by mesoscopic confinement. However, mapping out the phase diagram in a confined geometry has been experimentally challenging. We confined a sample of (3)He within a nanofluidic cavity of precisely defined geometry, cooled it, and fingerprinted the order parameter using a sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. The measured suppression of the p-wave order parameter arising from surface scattering was consistent with the predictions of quasi-classical theory. Controlled confinement of nanofluidic samples provides a new laboratory for the study of topological superfluids and their surface- and edge-bound excitations.