Facet Growth of ⁴He Crystal Induced by Acoustic Waves

Abstract

Very fast growth of the c-facet of a ⁴He crystal was induced by acoustic waves. The growth velocity was larger at lower temperatures and saturated below about 400 mK. The velocity was proportional to the acoustic wave power. This fast growth cannot be explained by the spiral growth mechanism for the known value of the step mobility. We developed a step multiplication model for high-power acoustic waves and found reasonable agreement with the observed temperature and power dependence of the growth velocity.