The role of vortices in the process of impurity nanoparticles coalescence in liquid helium

The process of condensation of metal atoms in superfluid helium was shown to occur mainly in the quantized vortices. Firstly the spherical nanocrystals were grown there. At low metal content in liquid they fused then into long cylindrical nanowires. At higher metal content the spherical microparticles were formed instead with their size terminated by mutual repulsion arisen in vortex core. Small number of zigzag-shaped nanowires was found to be formed in usual vortices of normal liquid helium as well. The production of ideal 1-D structures such as long polymer chains was predicted for non-metallic material condensation in superfluid helium. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.