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.

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 (propagation). This "creeping" seemingly ignores gravity. It can escape from any non-closed surface via creeping toward and eventual evaporation 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. If not for its evaporation in the presence of heat, a Rollin film would have a very low index of refraction and would be nearly transparent (helium I has an index of refraction of 1.026).
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.

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See also

See also



★ Superfluid

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