Impurity-stimulated heterogeneous nucleation of supercooled H2 clusters

The sizes and mass spectra of large (N=1900-13,700 molecules) cold (approximately 3.1 K) H2 clusters have been measured after scattering from CO molecules. Cluster-size measurements after between 2 and 8 collisions indicate that 7% of the H2 molecules are evaporated. This loss agrees with calculations for the number of H2 molecules evaporated by the heat released in the transition from an initial liquid state to a final solid state. Even though heterogeneous nucleation is initiated after only a few collisions with CO molecules, the mass spectra show that additional captured CO molecules coagulate to form large CO clusters with up to n=11 molecules, suggesting that the outer layer is sufficiently liquidlike to facilitate mobility of the CO molecules. Since the calculated H2 cluster temperature (approximately 3.1 K) is below the superfluid transition temperature predicted for pH2 with density between 40% and 80% of the triple-point density, a shell-like region of low density near the cluster surface can be expected to be superfluid.