Superfluid Photons
Optics & Photonics Focus
Volume 13 Story 7 - 27/6/2011

Superfluid helium escaping its container

One of the most remarkable manifestations of superfluidity is that superfluid helium can move up the inside walls of a container in a thin film, run down on the outside walls and finally form drops, which help it to escape into the liquid below. Picture: Alfred Leitner, Superfluid Liquid Helium, 1963.
[read full story]

Superfluid helium escaping its container. One of the most remarkable manifestations of superfluidity is that superfluid helium can move up the inside walls of a container in a thin film, run down on the outside walls and finally form drops, which help it to escape into the liquid below.