Superfluidlike Mass Flow Through 8 µm Thick Solid

ABSTRACT

We report the observation of superfluidlike mass flow through coin-shaped 8 µm thick solid ^{4}He samples sandwiched between superfluid leads. Mass flow is found from the melting pressure to at least 30 bar with a concomitant decrease in the onset temperature from 1 to 0.25 K. The mass-flow rate is found to be sample dependent and can be enhanced by thermal annealing. The flow rate decreases with temperature and decays nearly exponentially with the pressure of the samples. The dissipation associated with the mass flow decreases with temperature and becomes superfluidlike near 0.1 K. In contrast to earlier studies on centimeter-thick samples, we do not see a sharp cutoff in the mass-flow rate at low temperature.