Superfluid ^{3}He confined to high porosity silica aerogel is the paradigm system for understanding impurity effects in unconventional superconductors. However, a crucial first step has been elusive: exact identification of the microscopic states of the superfluid in the presence of quenched disorder. Using a new class of highly uniform aerogel materials, we report pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance experiments that demonstrate definitively that the two observed superfluid states in aerogel are impure versions of the isotropic and axial p-wave states. The theoretically predicted destruction of long-range orbital order (Larkin-Imry-Ma effect) in the impure axial state is not observed.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.195301DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

identification superfluid
4
superfluid phases
4
phases 3he
4
3he uniformly
4
uniformly isotropic
4
isotropic 982%
4
aerogel
4
982% aerogel
4
aerogel superfluid
4
superfluid ^{3}he
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!