Low temperature chemistry and physics in
superfluid 4He
- Synthesis
of nanostructures in superfluid helium by quantized vortices
- Time-resolved studies of superfluid response
- High-resolution laser spectroscopy
- Density functional theory of superfluid helium
Research
Superfluid 4He
provides a unique medium for carrying out chemistry at very low
temperatures (T < 2.1
K). It has unusual properties (liquid down to 0 K, vanishing
viscosity, and super-thermal conductivity), which make it an ideal
medium for: high-resolution molecular spectroscopy & imaging,
synthesis of nanomaterials, and studying quantum vorticity &
turbulence. Our current experiments are focused on imaging ionic
species in liquid helium (experiments) and developing density
functional theory-based methods for describing dynamics of
superfluid helium at non-zero temperatures (theory).
Demonstrations
Time-dependent density functional theory
simulation of electron thermalization in superfluid 4He
("bubble expansion").
Experimental visualization of normal
(He-I) to superfluid (He-II) phase transition (2.1 K).
Experimental visualization of
self-purification of superfluid helium (e.g. clustering of N2
gas molecules in the liquid; "snowfall").
Selected recent publications
Density functional theory of doped superfluid liquid helium and
nanodroplets, F. Ancilotto, M. Barranco, F. Coppens, J.
Eloranta, N. Halberstadt, A. Hernando, D. Mateo, and M. Pi. International
Reviews in Physical Chemistry 36, 621 (2017).
First observation of solitons in bulk superfluid 4He,
F. Ancilotto, D. Levy, J. Pimentel, and J. Eloranta. Physical
Review Letters 120, 035302 (2018).
Density functional theory modeling of vortex shedding in
superfluid 4He, A. Freund, D. Gonzalez,
X. Buelna, F. Ancilotto, and J. Eloranta. Physical Review B
98, 094520 (2018).
Study of shock waves and solitons in bulk superfluid 4He,
X. Buelna, D. Gonzalez, A. Freund,
and J. Eloranta. Physical Review B 99, 144518 (2019).
Ultrafast relaxation of photoexcited superfluid He nanodroplets,
M. Mudrich, A. C. LaForge, A. Ciavardini, P. Keeffe, C. Callegari,
M. Coreno, A. Demidovich, M. Devetta, M. Di Fraia, M. Drabbels, P.
Finetti, O. Gessner, C. Grazioli, A. Hernando, D. M. Neumark, Y.
Ovcharenko, P. Piseri, O. Plekan, K. C. Prince, R. Richter, M. P.
Ziemkiewicz, T. Moller, J. Eloranta, M. Pi, M. Barranco and F.
Stienkemeier. Nature Communications 11, 112 (2020).
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