Flow visualization in superfluid helium-4 using a thin line of He$_{2}$ excimer tracers*

Cryogenic flow visualization techniques have been proven in recent years to be a very powerful experimental method to study turbulence in superfluid helium-4 (He II). In order to extract quantitative information of the flow field, we developed a new technique based on the generation of a thin line of He$_{2}$ excimer tracers via femtosecond-laser field ionization. These tracers move solely with the normal-fluid component in He II and can be imaged using a laser-induce fluorescence technique. Studying the drift and distortion of the tracer line in a turbulent flow shall allow us to measure the instantaneous flow velocity field and hence determine the structure functions and the energy spectrum of the turbulence. We discuss the preliminary results obtained that for the first time visually reveal the existence of a laminar-to-turbulent transition in the normal fluid in thermal counterflow.