Superfluid $^3$He in Planar Aerogel

We report results of experiments with liquid $^3$He confined in a high porosity anisotropic nanostructure which we call planar aerogel. This aerogel consists of nanofibers (with diameters $\sim10$ nm) which are randomly oriented in the plane normal to the specific axis. We used two samples of planar aerogel prepared using different techniques. We have found that on cooling from the normal phase of $^3$He the superfluid transition in both samples occurs into an equal spin pairing superfluid phase. NMR properties of this phase qualitatively agree with the properties of the superfluid A phase in the anisotropic Larkin-Imry-Ma state. We have observed differences between results obtained in the presence and absence of solid paramagnetic $^3$He on the aerogel strands. We propose that these differences may be due, at least in part, to a magnetic scattering channel which appears in the presence of solid paramagnetic $^3$He.