Superfluid helium: visualization of quantized vortices.
When liquid helium is cooled to below its phase transition at 2.172 K, vortices appear with cores that are only ångströms in diameter, about which the fluid circulates with quantized angular momentum. Here we generate small particles of solid hydrogen that can be used to image the cores of quantized vortices in their three-dimensional environment of liquid helium. This technique enables the geometry and interactions of these vortices to be observed directly.
Bewley
Gregory P
GP
Department of Physics, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, Institute for Physical Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Lathrop
Daniel P
DP
Sreenivasan
Katepalli R
KR