On the mechanism of electromagnetic microwave absorption in superfluid helium

Abstract

In experiments on electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption in the microwave range in superfluid (SF) helium [1–3], a narrow EM field absorption line with a width on the order of (20–200) kHz was observed against the background of a wide absorption band with a width of 30–40 GHz at frequencies f 0 ≈ 110–180 GHz corresponding to the roton gap energy Δ r (T) in the temperature range 1.4–2.2 K. Using the so-called flexoelectric mechanism of polarization of helium atoms (4He) in the presence of density gradients in SF helium (HeII), we show that nonresonance microwave absorption in the frequency range 170–200 GHz can be due to the existence of time-varying local density gradients produced by roton excitations in the bulk HeII. The absorption bandwidth is determined by the roton-roton scattering time in an equilibrium Boltzmann gas of rotons, which is t r-r ≈ 3.4 × 10−11 s at T = 1.4 K and decreases upon heating. We propose that the anomalously narrow microwave resonance absorption line in HeII at the roton frequency f 0(T) = Δr(T)/2πħ appears due to the following two factors: (i) the discrete structure of the spectrum of the surface EM resonator modes in the form of a periodic sequence of narrow peaks and (ii) the presence of a stationary dipole layer in HeII near the resonator surface, which forms due to polarization of 4He atoms under the action of the density gradient associated with the vanishing of the density of the SF component at the solid wall. For this reason, the relaxation of nonequilibrium rotons generated in such a surface dipole layer is strongly suppressed, and the shape and width of the microwave resonance absorption line are determined by the roton density of states, which has a sharp peak at the edge of the roton gap in the case of weak dissipation. The effective dipole moments of rotons in the dipole layer can be directed either along or across the normal to the resonator surface, which explains the experimentally observed symmetric doublet splitting of the resonance absorption line in an external dc electric field perpendicular to the resonator surface. We show that negative absorption (induced emission) of EM field quanta observed after triggering a Kapitza “heat gun” occurs when the occupation numbers for roton states due to “pumping” of rotons exceed the occupation numbers of EM field photons in the resonator.