Rollin film

Helium II will "creep" along surfaces in order to find its own level - after a short while, the levels in the two containers will equalize. The Rollin film also covers the interior of the larger container; if it were not sealed, the helium II would creep out and escape.

The liquid helium is in the superfluid phase. As long as it remains superfluid, it creeps up the inside wall of the cup as a thin film. It comes down on the outside, forming a drop which will fall into the liquid below. Another drop will form—and so on—until the cup is empty.

A Rollin film, named after Bernard V. Rollin, is a 30 nm-thick liquid film of helium in the helium II state. It exhibits a "creeping" effect in response to surfaces extending past the film's level (wave propagation). Helium II can escape from any non-closed surface via creeping toward and eventually evaporating from capillaries of 10⁻⁷ to 10⁻⁸ meters or greater.

Rollin films are involved in the fountain effect where superfluid helium leaks out of a container in a fountain-like manner. They have high thermal conductivity.

The ability of superfluid liquids to cross obstacles that lie at a higher level is often referred to as the Onnes-Effect, named after Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. The Onnes-Effect is enabled by the capillary forces dominating the gravity- and viscous forces.

Waves propagating across a Rollin film are governed by the same equation as gravity waves in shallow water, but rather than gravity, the restoring force is the Van der Waals force. These waves are known as third sound.

See also

• Superfluid
• Second sound

References

• Fairbank H.A.; Lane C.T. (October 1949). "Rollin Film Rates in Liquid Helium". Physical Review 76 (8): 1209–1211. Bibcode 1949PhRv...76.1209F. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.76.1209. 
• B.V. Rollin and F. Simon (1939). "On the "film" phenomenon of liquid helium II". Physica 6 (2): 219–230. Bibcode 1939Phy.....6..219R. doi:10.1016/S0031-8914(39)80013-1. 

External links

• Video of the property in action
• Liquid Helium,Superfluid: demonstrating Lambda point transition/viscosity paradox/two fluid model/fountain effect/Rollin film/second sound