Orbital-flop transition of superfluid 3He in anisotropic silica aerogel.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 201, 2024 Jan 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38172106
ABSTRACT
Superfluid 3He is a paradigm for odd-parity Cooper pairing, ranging from neutron stars to uranium-based superconducting compounds. Recently it has been shown that 3He, imbibed in anisotropic silica aerogel with either positive or negative strain, preferentially selects either the chiral A-phase or the time-reversal-symmetric B-phase. This control over basic order parameter symmetry provides a useful model for understanding imperfect unconventional superconductors. For both phases, the orbital quantization axis is fixed by the direction of strain. Unexpectedly, at a specific temperature Tx, the orbital axis flops by 90∘, but in reverse order for A and B-phases. Aided by diffusion limited cluster aggregation simulations of anisotropic aerogel and small angle X-ray measurements, we are able to classify these aerogels as either "planar" and "nematic" concluding that the orbital-flop is caused by competition between short and long range structures in these aerogels.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article