Layer- and Bulk-Roton Excitations of ⁴He in Porous Media

We examine the energetics of bulk- and layer-roton excitations of ⁴He in various porous medial such as aerogel, Geltech, or Vycor, in order to find out what conclusions can be drawn from experiments on the energetics about the physisorption mechanism. The energy of the layer-roton minimum depends sensitively on the substrate strength, thus providing a mechanism for a direct measurement of this quantity. On the other hand, bulklike roton excitations are largely independent of the interaction between the medium and the helium atoms, but the dependence of their energy on the degree of filling reflects the internal structure of the matrix and can reveal features of ⁴He at negative pressures. While bulklike rotons are very similar to their true bulk counterparts, the layer modes are not in close relation to two-dimensional rotons and should be regarded as a third, completely independent kind of excitation.