text: Spectrometers are kept at a very low temperature using helium as the coolant. This allows for minimal background flux in far-infrared readings. Some of the designs for the spectrometers may be simple, but even the frame is at its warmest less than 20 Kelvin.  These devices are not commonly used as it is very expensive to use superfluid helium over other coolants.
  Superfluid helium has a very high thermal conductivity, which makes it very useful for cooling superconductors. Superconductors such as the ones used at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) are cooled to temperatures of approximately 1.9 Kelvin. This temperature allows the niobium-titanium magnets to reach a superconductor state. Without the use of the superfluid helium, this temperature would not be possible. Using helium to cool to these temperatures is very expensive and cooling systems that use alternative fluids are more numerous.
  Another application of the superfluid helium is its uses in understanding quantum mechanics. Using lasers to look at small droplets allows scientists to view behaviors that may not normally be viewable. This is due to all the helium in each droplet being at the same quantum state. This application does not have any practical uses by itself, but it helps us better understand quantum mechanics which has its own applications.