Quantum effects in the low-temperature thermal expansion of fullerite C60 doped with a 4He impurity

Abstract

The thermal expansion of fullerite C60 doped with a 4He impurity at T ∼2 K has been investigated by the method of low temperature precision dilatometry in the interval T = 2.2−24 K. The character and the derived values of the thermal expansion coefficients were strongly dependent on the concentration of the 4He impurity in fullerite. In the interval T = 2.2−5 K the thermal expansion of the 4Hex−C60 system is negative, which is attributed to the tunnel movement of the 4He atoms in the cavity system of the C60 crystal lattice and at the crystallite surface. The contribution of this process to the thermal expansion decreases as the impurity (4He) concentration increases and the probability of 4He tunneling between the crystal lattice cavities and the impurity-free areas of the grain surface diminishes. In the temperature interval T = 4.5−24 K the thermal expansion of the 4Hex−C60 system is influenced predominantly by the mutual transformations of different orientation glass modifications of fullerite. Owing to their tunnel character the transformations make a negative contribution to the process of thermal expansion entailing a hysteresis and other anomalies observed in this temperature interval. The intensity of the processes provoked by the tunneling-encouraged phase transformations of the orientational glasses of C60 increases with the 4He concentration in fullerite.