Heat Capacity of Dilute 3He–4He Films on Graphite

Abstract

The heat capacity of dilute 3He–4He films is measured to clarify whether the second adsorbed layer of 4He films on graphite solidify into the so-called “4/7 phase.” The 3He areal density is fixed at 0.2 nm−2, whereas the 4He areal density is gradually increased. The measured heat capacities suddenly decrease with an increasing areal density approaching that of the 4/7 phase. Above the areal density of the 4/7 phase, the heat capacities do not reduce completely to zero and have finite values. The behavior of the heat capacity does not change over a rather wide areal density regime, although it suddenly increases or recovers at around the areal density of the third-layer promotion. These behaviors can be interpreted as the separation of 3He–4He mixture films into a 3He-rich phase and a 4He-rich phase, with the 3He-rich phase solidifying into the 4/7 phase and the 4He-rich phase remaining fluid below the areal density of the third-layer promotion. These observations strongly suggest that a 4He film adsorbed on a graphite surface does not solidify into the 4/7 phase.