UCI Scientists Conduct Tests on Liquid Helium

A team of UC Irvine scientists has performed a liquid-to-surface experiment with results that could one day improve millions of household products, from glues and paints to dyes and cleaners.

Writing in the Oct. 24 issue of Science, Peter Taborek, James Rutledge and David Ross describe getting liquid helium to perform the scientific version of water on a duck’s back: It beaded up and formed droplets instead of automatically wetting the surface.

“This is significant because liquid helium wants to wet everything it touches,” said Taborek, a professor of physics. “It naturally wants to spread over every surface it touches and cover it with a thin film. But we’ve been able to document, through photographs, liquid helium forming droplets on the only known surface that causes it to react this way.”

That surface is an unusual alkali metal called cesium.

The scientists said their experiments with helium and cesium may lead to deeper understanding of that process, in turn possibly leading to improved liquid-based products used each day by millions around the world.