Boiling kinetics of superheated liquid helium-4

This paper studies the superheat of liquid helium⁴He by the method of measurement of mean lifetimes in a pure bubble chamber. The experimental setup and methods of measurements are described. This method allowed us to observe the temperature dependence of nucleation rate at a fixed pressure. Measurements were carried out in the pressure range from 0.50 to 1.20 atm. The temperatures of attainable superheat were compared with the Döring-Volmer homogeneous nucleation theory and with the experimental data obtained by the pulse method and the method of continuous isobaric heating by other investigators. Two peculiarities of boiling of superheated liquid helium have been revealed and interpreted. The influence of electron bubbles, the dependence of surface tension on the curvature of interface, and ionizing background radiation on nucleation kinetics are discussed.