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.
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