arXiv subjects

M. Krusius

Publications and source records attributed to M. Krusius.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

Superconducting Nb-film LC resonator

Sputtered Nb thin-film LC resonators for low frequencies at 0.5 MHz have been fabricated and tested in the temperature range 0.05--1 K in magnetic fields up to 30 mT. Their Q value increases towards decreasing temperature as sqrt(T) and reaches 10^3 at 0.05 K. As a function of magnetic field Q is unstable and displays variations up to 50%, which are reproducible from one field sweep to the next. These instabilities are attributed to dielectric losses in the plasma deposited SiO_2 insulation layer, since the thin-film coil alone reaches a Q > 10^5 at 0.05 K.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2000

What can superconductivity learn from quantized vorticity in He-3 superfluids?

In He-3 superfluids quantized vorticity can take many different forms: It can appear as distributed periodic textures, as sheets, or as lines. In the anisotropic He-3A phase in most cases the amplitude of the order parameter remains constant throughout the vortex structure and only its orientation changes in space. In the quasi-isotropic He-3B phase vortex lines have a hard core where the order parameter has reduced, but finite amplitude. The different structures have been firmly identified, based on both measurement and calculation. What parallels can be drawn from this information to the new unconventional superconductors or Bose-Einstein condensates?

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Composite defect extends cosmology - 3He analogy

Spin-mass vortices have been observed to form in rotating superfluid 3He-B following the absorption of a thermal neutron and a rapid transition from the normal to superfluid state. The spin-mass vortex is a composite defect which consists of a planar soliton (wall) which terminates on a linear core (string). This observation fits well within the framework of a cosmological scenario for defect formation, known as the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. It suggests that in the early Universe analogous cosmological defects might have formed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Quantized Vorticity in Superfluid 3He-A

Superfluid 3He-A displays the largest variety in vortex structure among the presently known coherent quantum systems. The experimentally verified information comes mostly from NMR measurements on the rotating fluid, from which the order-parameter texture can often be worked out. The various vortex structures differ in the topology of their order-parameter field, in energy, critical velocity, and in their response to temporal variations in the externally applied flow. They require different experimental conditions for their creation. When the flow is applied in the superfluid state, the structure with the lowest critical velocity is formed. In 3He-A this leads to the various forms of continuous (or singularity-free) vorticity. Which particular structure is created depends on the externally applied conditions and on the global order-parameter texture.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Anisotropy of flux-flow resistivity in UPt3

The ac prenetration depth, λ_ac(T,H,f), has been measured in superconducting UPt3 single crystals for H\parallel c and H\perp c in the range f=0.01-1MHz and T=0.1-0.4 K. The contributions from bulk pinning and surface pinning have been separated out to yield the flux-flow resistivity ρ_f(H). With H\perp c, rho_f displays magneto-resistance at low field which agrees with previous dc measurements and the characteristic scaling law of clean crystals with anisotropic gap. When H\parallel c, the low-field ρ_f is three times larger. We interpret this property as evidence for flux line with unconventional core structure.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Coexistence of Single and Double-Quantum Vortex Lines

We discuss the configurations in which singly and doubly quantized vortex lines may coexist in a rotating superfluid. General principles of energy minimization lead to the conclusion that in equilibrium the two vortex species segregate within a cylindrical vortex cluster in two coaxial domains where the singly quantized lines are in the outer annular region. This is confirmed with simulation calculations on discrete vortex lines. Experimentally the coexistence can be studied in rotating superfluid $^3$He-A. With cw NMR techniques we find the radial distribution of the two vortex species to depend on how the cluster is prepared: (i) By cooling through $T_c$ in rotation, coexistence in the minimum energy configuration is confirmed. (ii) A glassy agglomerate is formed if one starts with an equilibrium cluster of single-quantum vortex lines and adds to it sequentially double-quantum lines, by increasing the rotation velocity in the superfluid state. This proves that the energy barriers, which separate different cluster configurations, are too high for metastabilities to anneal.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Lexicon of Topological Defects in He-3 Superfluids

Defects in the multi-dimensional macroscopic quantum field of the He-3 superfluids are localized objects with a topological charge and are topologically stable. They include point-like objects, vortex lines, planar domain-wall-like structures, and 3-dimensional textures, which may or may not include singular points or lines. An inventory of illustrations is presented which concisely lists the different experimentally confirmed defect structures in the A and B phases of superfluid He-3.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Superflow-Stabilized Nonlinear NMR in Rotating 3He-B

Nonlinear spin precession has been observed in 3He-B in large counterflow of the normal and superfluid fractions. The new precessing state is stabilized at high rf excitation level and displays frequency-locked precession over a large range of frequency shifts, with the magnetization at its equilibrium value. Comparison to analytical and numerical calculation indicates that in this state the orbital angular momentum L of the Cooper pairs is oriented transverse to the external magnetic field in a ``non-Leggett'' configuration with broken spin-orbit coupling. The resonance shift depends on the tipping angle theta of the magnetization as omega - omega_L = (Omega_B^2 / 2 omega_L)(cos(theta) - 1/5). The phase diagram of the precessing modes with arbitrary orientation of L is constructed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Flow instability in 3He-A as analog of generation of hypermagnetic field in early Universe

It is now well-recognized that the Universe may behave like a condensed matter system in which several phase transitions have taken place. Superconductors and the superfluid phases of 3He are condensed matter systems with useful similarities to the Universe: they both contain Bose fields (order parameter) and Fermions (quasiparticles) which interact in a way similar to the interaction of Higgs and gauge particles with fermions in particle physics. This analogy allows us to simulate many properties of the cosmologically relevant physical (particle physics) vacuum in condensed matter, while direct experiments in particle physics are still far from realization. Recently, the anomalous generation of momentum (called ``momentogenesis'') was experimentally confirmed in 3He: in the non-trivial background of a moving 3He vortex, quantum effects gave rise to the production of quasiparticles with momentum which were detected by measuring the force on the vortex. This phenomenon is based on the same physics as the anomalous generation of matter in particle physics and bears directly on the cosmological problem of why the Universe contains much more matter than antimatter (``baryogenesis''). Here we report the experimental observation of the effect opposite to momentogenesis: the conversion of quasiparticle momentum into a non-trivial order parameter configuration or ``texture''. The corresponding process in a cosmological setting would be the creation of a primordial magnetic field due to changes in the matter content.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

Critical Velocity of Vortex Nucleation in Rotating Superfluid 3He-A

We have measured the critical velocity v_c at which 3He-A in a rotating cylinder becomes unstable against the formation of quantized vortex lines with continuous (singularity-free) core structure. We find that v_c is distributed between a maximum and minimum limit, which we ascribe to a dependence on the texture of the orbital angular momentum l(r) in the cylinder. Slow cool down through T_c in rotation yields l(r) textures for which the measured v_c's are in good agreement with the calculated instability of the expected l texture.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv1997

Defect Formation in Quench-Cooled Superfluid Phase Transition

We use neutron absorption in rotating 3He-B to heat locally a 10 micrometer-size volume into normal phase. When the heated region cools back in microseconds, vortex lines are formed. We record with NMR the number of lines as a function of superflow velocity and compare to the Kibble-Zurek theory of vortex-loop freeze-out from a random network of defects. The measurements confirm the calculated loop-size distribution and show that also the superfluid state itself forms as a patchwork of competing A and B phase blobs. This explains the A to B transition in supercooled neutron-irradiated 3He-A.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1996

Stable Spin Precession at one Half of Equilibrium Magnetization in Superfluid 3He-B

New stable modes of spin precession have been observed in superfluid 3He-B. These dynamical order parameter states include precession with a magnetization S=pS_{eq} which is different from the equilibrium value S_{eq}. We have identified modes with p=1, 1/2 and \approx 0. The p=1/2 mode is the second member of phase correlated states of a spin superfluid. The new states can be excited in the temperature range 1-T/T_c \lesssim 0.02 where the energy barriers between the different local minima of the spin-orbit energy are small. They are stable in CW NMR due to low dissipation close to T_c.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1995

Big bang simulation in superfluid 3He-B -- Vortex nucleation in neutron-irradiated superflow

We report the observation of vortex formation upon the absorption of a thermal neutron in a rotating container of superfluid $^3$He-B. The nuclear reaction n + $^3$He = p + $^3$H + 0.76MeV heats a cigar shaped region of the superfluid into the normal phase. The subsequent cooling of this region back through the superfluid transition results in the nucleation of quantized vortices. Depending on the superflow velocity, sufficiently large vortex rings grow under the influence of the Magnus force and escape into the container volume where they are detected individually with nuclear magnetic resonance. The larger the superflow velocity the smaller the rings which can expand. Thus it is possible to obtain information about the morphology of the initial defect network. We suggest that the nucleation of vortices during the rapid cool-down into the superfluid phase is similar to the formation of defects during cosmological phase transitions in the early universe.

cond-mat↗