Curtis Jones

Shapes and vorticities of superfluid helium nanodroplets

X-raying superfluid helium droplets When physicists rotate the superfluid 4He, it develops a regular array of tiny whirlpools, called vortices. The same phenomenon should occur in helium droplets half a micrometer in size, but studying individual droplets is tricky. Gomez et al. used x-ray diffraction to deduce the shape of individual rotating droplets and image the resulting vortex patterns, which confirmed the superfluidity of the droplets. They found that superfluid droplets can host a surprising number of vortices and can rotate faster than normal droplets without disintegrating. Science, this issue p. 906 Vortex lattices inside individual helium droplets are imaged using x-ray diffraction. Helium nanodroplets are considered ideal model systems to explore quantum hydrodynamics in self-contained, isolated superfluids. However, exploring the dynamic properties of individual droplets is experimentally challenging. In this work, we used single-shot femtosecond x-ray coherent diffractive imaging to investigate the rotation of single, isolated superfluid helium-4 droplets containing ~108 to 1011 atoms. The formation of quantum vortex lattices inside the droplets is confirmed by observing characteristic Bragg patterns from xenon clusters trapped in the vortex cores. The vortex densities are up to five orders of magnitude larger than those observed in bulk liquid helium. The droplets exhibit large centrifugal deformations but retain axially symmetric shapes at angular velocities well beyond the stability range of viscous classical droplets.

Communication: X-ray coherent diffractive imaging by immersion in nanodroplets

Lensless x-ray microscopy requires the recovery of the phase of the radiation scattered from a specimen. Here, we demonstrate a de novo phase retrieval technique by encapsulating an object in a superfluid helium nanodroplet, which provides both a physical support and an approximate scattering phase for the iterative image reconstruction. The technique is robust, fast-converging, and yields the complex density of the immersed object. Images of xenon clusters embedded in superfluid helium droplets reveal transient configurations of quantum vortices in this fragile system.

Formation of He4+ via electron impact of helium droplets

Electron impact ionization of superfluid helium droplets containing several thousand atoms produces a broad distribution of Hen+ ions that peaks at n = 2 and decreases monotonically toward larger n. In larger droplets (say 105 or more atoms), however, the He4+ signal intensity is anomalously large. We have studied the mechanism for the formation of He4+ ions in large helium droplets by varying the duration of the electron impact excitation pulse. Droplets of different average sizes were generated using the expansion of helium at 20 bars and 9-20 K through a pulsed valve nozzle. The resulting ions were analyzed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (TOFMS) and quadrupole mass spectroscopy (QMS). The intensity distributions obtained with the TOFMS technique initially showed much smaller He4+ signals than those obtained using QMS. However, we discovered that the intensity anomaly is associated with the duration of the electron bombardment pulse in the TOFMS instrument. Measurements with different electron bombardment pulse durations enabled us to discern a characteristic time of ∼10 μs for enhanced He4+ production in large droplets under our experimental conditions. A qualitative model is presented in which metastables interact on droplet surfaces, yielding two He2+ cores that share a Rydberg electron while minimizing repulsion between the cores. This is the He4+(4A2) state suggested by Knowles and Murrell.

Laser-induced reconstruction of Ag clusters in helium droplets

Silver clusters were assembled in helium droplets of different sizes ranging from 105 to 1010 atoms. The absorption of the clusters was studied upon laser irradiation at 355 nm and 532 nm, which is close to the plasmon resonance maximum in spherical Ag clusters and in the range of the absorption of the complex, branched Ag clusters, respectively. The absorption of the pulsed (7 ns) radiation at 532 nm shows some pronounced saturation effects, absent upon the continuous irradiation. This phenomenon has been discussed in terms of the melting of the complex Ag clusters at high laser fluence, resulting in a loss of the 532 nm absorption. Estimates of the heat transfer also indicate that a bubble may be formed around the hot cluster at high fluences, which may result in ejection of the cluster from the droplet, or disintegration of the droplet entirely.

CHAPTER 8:Experiments with Large Superfluid Helium Nanodroplets

This chapter aims to look at the properties of large helium nanodroplets from two different perspectives: (i) helium droplets as hosts for assembling and studying clusters at low temperatures; and (ii) helium droplets as systems to be studied on their own. First, the thermodynamics and excitations in large droplets are presented, followed by a primer on the rate of droplet cooling in vacuo. The chapter then proceeds with the description on producing and characterizing the droplets. This is followed by a discussion on the kinetics for different cluster aggregation regimes, such as that for single- and multiple-centre aggregation. Then, experiments involving the spectroscopy of foreign particles and the deposition of metallic clusters for electron microscopy studies are described. Finally, results from recent X-ray coherent diffractive imaging experiments with pure and doped helium nanodroplets are summarized.