Thermodynamics of3Hein3He−4Hethin films: The Fermi gas limit

Abstract

We examine the thermodynamics of a two-dimensional Fermi gas model describing adsorbed ${}^{3}$Hein a thin superfluid ${}^{4}$Hefilm. The ${}^{3}$Hesystem is characterized by both a hydrodynamic effective mass and a set of discrete transverse single-particle states that model the effects of the interaction with the substrate that supports the film. We show that the magnetization steps seen in experiment are a simple manifestation of the $T=0\mathrm{K}$ equation of state. We prove that perfectly horizontal magnetization steps rigorously disappear at any finite temperature. We show that the thermal stability of the steps is determined by the larger of $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\epsilon}/2,$ one-half of the level spacing, and ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{m}{\mathcal{H}}_{0},$ the magnetic energy. We derive the conditions under which there exist points in the phase space (termed invariant points) through which all low-temperature isotherms pass exponentially close. The invariant points appear for magnetization versus ${}^{3}$Hecoverage, chemical potential versus magnetization, magnetic susceptibility versus coverage, and speed of sound squared versus coverage. We compare our calculated invariant points for the magnetization versus coverage with experiment and find good agreement. We show that there exist small regions of thermodynamic phase space in which the temperature derivative of the pressure is negative. We explain these anomalous regions as the result of ${}^{3}$Heatoms ``spilling over'' from a full Fermi sea to an empty Fermi sea upon the application of a small increase in temperature. Through a Maxwell relation, this behavior can also be seen as in the appearance of a local peak in low-temperature entropy isotherms versus coverage. In the limit of a two state model, we calculate the specific heat and show that a Schottky peak develops in the low ${}^{3}$Hecoverage limit. We calculate the magnetic susceptibility and predict that it should exhibit a steplike structure versus ${}^{3}$Hecoverage similar to that of the magnetization. We calculate the speed of sound and show that it should exhibit zero-temperature discontinuities at the points where new Fermi seas begin to be occupied. Both the steplike structure in the magnetic susceptibility and the discontinuity-type structure in the speed of sound persist to temperatures on the order of 100 mK, and are analyzed in terms of invariant points in their respective phase diagrams. We show explicitly that, in the Fermi gas limit, the zero-field magnetic susceptibility is simply proportional to the isothermal compressibility.