Low frequency elastic measurements on solid 4 He in vycor using a torsional oscillator

Abstract

Torsional oscillator (TO) experiments involving solid 4 He confined in the nanoscale pores of Vycor glass showed anomalous frequency changes at temperatures below 200 mK. These were initially attributed to decoupling of some of the helium's mass from the oscillator, the expected signature of a supersolid. However, these and similar anomalous effects seen with bulk 4 He now appear to be artifacts arising from large shear modulus changes when mobile dislocations are pinned by 3He impurities. We have used a TO technique to directly measure the shear modulus of the solid 4 He/Vycor system at a frequency (1.2 kHz) comparable to that used in previous TO experiments. The shear modulus increases gradually as the TO is cooled from 1 K to 20 mK. We attribute the gradual modulus change to the freezing out of thermally activated relaxation processes in the solid helium. The absence of rapid changes below 200 mK is expected since mobile dislocations could not exist in pores as small as those of Vycor. Our results support the interpretation of a recent TO experiment that showed no anomaly when elastic effects in bulk helium were eliminated by ensuring that there were no gaps around the Vycor sample. © 2014 The Author(s).