Phonons in liquid 4He from a heated metal film. I. The creation of high-frequency phonons

Abstract

For a very short (tp<0.25 mu s) Joule heating pulse in a metal film heater submerged in liquid 4He at low temperatures (T<0.1 K), the phonons created in the liquid separate into distinct low-frequency and high-frequency distributions. Phonons of intermediate frequencies are absent from the signal because they spontaneously decay to lower frequencies. High-frequency phonons above the decay cut-off ( omega > omega c( infinity )) are stable as T to 0. We find that for a heater power of 10 mW mm-2, these high-frequency phonons are not distributed over the available frequency range up to the maxon, but are concentrated in a narrow band around omega c( infinity ). Times of flight show that the distribution of high-frequency phonons depends upon pressure P such that the peak is always at the pressure dependent decay cut-off omega c( infinity )(P). We suggest that the majority of these detected high-frequency phonons are produced in the liquid 4He by frequency up scattering processes amongst the injected phonons.