Anisotropy of growth kinetics of 3He crystals below 1 mK

The growth anisotropy of different facets has been measured in 3He crystals at 0.55 mK using a low-temperature Fabry-Pérot interferometer and high-resolution pressure measurements. The observed linear dependence of the growth velocity on the driving force shows that facets grow due to the presence of dislocations. The values of the obtained step energies suggest that 3He has stronger coupling of the liquid-solid interface to the lattice than has been expected. The dependence of the step energy versus the step height is consistent with a quartic power law pointing out that the step-step interactions are of elastic origin.