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Evidence for a disorder induced phase transition in the condensation of 4He in aerogels

Thierry Lambert, Florence Despetis, Laurent Puech, Pierre-Etienne Wolf

cond-mat.softarXiv:cond-mat/0603486

Abstract

We report on thermodynamic and optical measurements of the condensation process of 4He in two silica aerogels of same porosity 95%, but different microstructures resulting from different pH during synthesis. For a base-catalyzed aerogel, the temperature dependence of the shape of adsorption isotherms and of the morphology of the condensation process show evidence of a disorder induced transition,in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. This transition is not observed for a neutral-catalyzed aerogel, which we interpret as due to a larger disorder in this case.

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