Helium superfluidity. Shapes and vorticities of superfluid helium nanodroplets

Luis F Gomez; Ken R Ferguson; James P Cryan; Camila Bacellar; Rico Mayro P Tanyag; Curtis Jones; Sebastian Schorb; Denis Anielski; Ali Belkacem; Charles Bernando; Rebecca Boll; John Bozek; Sebastian Carron; Gang Chen; Tjark Delmas; Lars Englert; Sascha W Epp; Benjamin Erk; Lutz Foucar; Robert Hartmann; Alexander Hexemer; Martin Huth; Justin Kwok; Stephen R Leone; Jonathan H S Ma; Filipe R N C Maia; Erik Malmerberg; Stefano Marchesini; Daniel M Neumark; Billy Poon; James Prell; Daniel Rolles; Benedikt Rudek; Artem Rudenko; Martin Seifrid; Katrin R Siefermann; Felix P Sturm; Michele Swiggers; Joachim Ullrich; Fabian Weise; Petrus Zwart; Christoph Bostedt; Oliver Gessner; Andrey F Vilesov

doi:10.1126/science.1252395

Helium superfluidity. Shapes and vorticities of superfluid helium nanodroplets

Science. 2014 Aug 22;345(6199):906-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1252395.

Authors

Luis F Gomez¹, Ken R Ferguson², James P Cryan³, Camila Bacellar⁴, Rico Mayro P Tanyag¹, Curtis Jones¹, Sebastian Schorb², Denis Anielski⁵, Ali Belkacem³, Charles Bernando⁶, Rebecca Boll⁷, John Bozek², Sebastian Carron², Gang Chen⁸, Tjark Delmas⁹, Lars Englert¹⁰, Sascha W Epp⁵, Benjamin Erk⁷, Lutz Foucar¹¹, Robert Hartmann¹², Alexander Hexemer⁸, Martin Huth¹², Justin Kwok¹³, Stephen R Leone¹⁴, Jonathan H S Ma¹⁵, Filipe R N C Maia¹⁶, Erik Malmerberg¹⁷, Stefano Marchesini¹⁸, Daniel M Neumark⁴, Billy Poon¹⁹, James Prell²⁰, Daniel Rolles²¹, Benedikt Rudek⁵, Artem Rudenko²², Martin Seifrid¹, Katrin R Siefermann³, Felix P Sturm³, Michele Swiggers², Joachim Ullrich⁵, Fabian Weise³, Petrus Zwart¹⁹, Christoph Bostedt²³, Oliver Gessner²⁴, Andrey F Vilesov²⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
² Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
³ Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁴ Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
⁸ Advanced Light Source, LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁹ CFEL, DESY, Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
¹⁰ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, 85741 Garching, Germany.
¹¹ Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
¹² PNSensor GmbH, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81739 München, Germany.
¹³ Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
¹⁴ Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹⁵ Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁶ National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹⁷ Physical Biosciences Division, LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Calfornia Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹⁸ Advanced Light Source, LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Physics, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹⁹ Physical Biosciences Division, LBNL, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
²⁰ Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
²¹ Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
²² Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. James R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
²³ Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. PULSE Institute, Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. bostedt@slac.stanford.edu ogessner@lbl.gov vilesov@usc.edu.
²⁴ Ultrafast X-ray Science Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. bostedt@slac.stanford.edu ogessner@lbl.gov vilesov@usc.edu.
²⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. Department of Physics and Astronomy, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. bostedt@slac.stanford.edu ogessner@lbl.gov vilesov@usc.edu.

PMID: 25146284
DOI: 10.1126/science.1252395

Abstract

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 ~10(8) to 10(11) 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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.