Crystal growth of U2D2 solid 3He

The authors have measured the growth rate of single crystal U2D2 solid 3He in the superfluid B phase as a function of chemical potential difference Δμ between the solid and liquid for temperatures between 0.4 and 0.9 TN. The growth rate was not proportional to Δμ, with very slow growth rates for Δμ less than about 10 erg/cm3. For larger values of Δμ the growth rate depended weakly on temperature and the growth was attributed to a quantum growth mechanism due to screw dislocations. The melting rate was too fast to be measured quantitatively, but was slower at higher temperatures