10 W/90 K single-stage pulse tube cryocoolers

A single-stage 10 W/90 K coaxial pulse tube cryocooler has been developed for space-borne optics cooling. The design considerations are described, and the optimizations on the double-segmented inertance tubes are presented. The preliminary engineering model (EM) of the cooler has been worked out, which typically provides the cooling of 10 W at 90 K with the input power of 175.6 W at 310 K reject temperature, and achieves around 14% of Carnot efficiency at 90 K. The reject temperature dependence experiments on the EM show a smaller slope of 10.2 W/10 K and indicate a good adaptability to the reject temperature range from 290 K to 333 K.     

18.6 K single-stage high frequency multi-bypass coaxial pulse tube cryocooler

A single-stage high frequency multi-bypass coaxial pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) has been developed for physical experiments. The performance characteristics are presented. At present, the cooler has reached the lowest temperature of 18.6 K with an electric input power of 268 W, which is the reported lowest temperature for single-stage high frequency PTC. The cooler typically provides 0.2 W at 20.6 K and 0.5 W at 24.1 K with the input power of 260 W at 300 K ambient temperature. The cooperation phase adjustment method of multi-bypass and double-inlet shows its advantages in experiments, they might be the best way to get temperature below 20 K for single-stage high frequency PTC. The temperature stability of the developed PTC is also observed.     

Design and optimization of a two-stage 28 K Joule–Thomson microcooler

Micro Joule–Thomson (JT) coolers made from glass wafers have been investigated for many years at the University of Twente. After successful realization of a single-stage JT microcooler with a cooling capacity of about 10 mW at 100 K, a two-stage microcooler is being researched to attain a lower temperature of about 30 K. By maximizing the coefficient of performance (COP) of the two-stage microcooler, nitrogen is selected as the optimum working fluid for the first stage and hydrogen as that for the second stage. A dynamic finite-element model is developed for analyzing the cooler performance and to calculate the smallest cooler geometry. The optimized overall cooler dimensions are 20.4 × 85.8 × 0.72 mm for a net cooling power of 50 mW at 97 K at the first stage and 20 mW at 28 K at the second stage. The cool-down time to 28 K is calculated to be about 1.7 h with mass-flow rates of 14.0 mg/s for nitrogen and 0.94 mg/s for hydrogen at steady state.     

Significant blue-shift in photoluminescence excitation spectra of Nd3+:LaF3 potential laser medium at low-temperature

Temperature-dependent optical properties of bulk Nd³⁺:LaF₃ crystals are reported. A blue-shift in the photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectrum is observed at 30 K. The 173.2-nm emission peak wavelength at 300 K shifted to 172.8 nm at 30 K, consistent with the 6-nm blue-shift in transmission edge and 2437-cm⁻¹ increase in the lowest energy level of the 4f²5d configuration. Thermal broadening of the 5d–4f emission bands with increasing temperature is also observed as the dip at around 178.5 nm present at 30 K disappears at 300 K. A smaller spectral overlap between the PLE and emission spectra is observed as temperature is decreased. Our results suggest that absorption cross-section at the peak fluorescence wavelength is expected to decrease at 30 K.     

Influences of magnetic annealing on the grain growth in a cryoECAPed 1050 aluminum alloy

The evolutions of hardness, grain microstructures and dislocations were investigated in cryoECAPed 1050 aluminum alloy after annealing at 423–673 K for 1 h without and with a magnetic field of 12 T. Compared to those of samples annealed without the magnetic field, the hardness of samples annealed with the magnetic field is lower at 423–573 K, and then higher at > 573 K. The high magnetic field accelerates the formation of dislocation cells or sub-grains. The interface dislocations frequently observed in materials deformed at high temperature were detected in samples annealed with the magnetic field at ≥ 423 K. The fraction of low angle boundaries in sample annealed with the field is 49% and 34% in sample annealed without the field even at 673 K. No abnormal grain growth occurs in samples annealed with the magnetic field due to the rapid consumption of the stored distortion energy during recovery.     

A closed-cycle 1 K refrigeration cryostat

A 1 K closed-cycle cryostat has been developed to provide continuous cooling to a photon detector below 2 K. A two-stage 4 K pulse tube cryocooler is used to liquefy evacuated vapor from a 1 K pumping port to form a closed-cycle refrigeration loop. A 1 K instrumentation chamber, attached to the 1 K cooling station, is designed to operate with helium inside and provide more uniform cooling. The design of the cryostat has no direct mechanical contact between the pulse tube cryocooler heat exchangers and the 1 K cooling station resulting in almost no vibration transfer to instrumentation chamber. The cryostat can reach a no-load temperature of 1.62 K and provide 250 mW cooling power at 1.84 K.     

SPICA/BLISS cryo-chain demonstrator

The Background Limited Infrared Submillimeter Spectrometer (BLISS) is an instrument proposed for SPICA, the Japanese–European space-borne telescope mission under study for a possible launch in the next decade. The BLISS concept is a suite of aluminum spectrometer modules totaling ∼10 kg cooled to 50 mK. Cooling this ambitious instrument with high-duty cycle within the stringent heat-rejection allocations envisioned for SPICA is a challenge. We have developed a solution consisting of two stages: (1) a continuous 300 mK intercept stage provided by two 3He sorption coolers operated sequentially, and (2) a 50 mK adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) operated in single-shot mode. We have built a prototype cooler and demonstrated it in a dedicated SPICA-like thermal testbed with regulated stages enabling measurement of rejected heat at 1.7 K and 4.5 K. The approach offers lower mass than a dual-stage ADR, and lower rejected power to 1.7 K and 4.5 K than a comparable single-shot 300 mK system, while insuring a high duty cycle. As a demonstration of feasibility for SPICA and future cryogenic missions, we show long-term cooling with flight-like parasitics at 50 mK and 300 mK requiring only 3 mW and 8 mW rejected at 1.7 K and 4.5 K, respectively.     

High-capacity 60 K single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocoolers

A high-capacity single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocooler operating at around 60 K has been developed to provide the appropriate cooling for the next-generation very-large-scale long wave infrared focal plane arrays under development. The application background and cooler design process are described, and the performance characteristics are presented. At present, the cooler typically provides 4.06 W at 60 K with the input power of 180 W at 300 K reject temperature. 4.72 W can also be achieved when the input power increases to 200 W, and over 9.4% of Carnot efficiency at 60 K has been realized. The larger pulse tube diameter of 14.2 mm is used and the evident orientation sensitivity is observed in the range of 55–65 Hz. The experiments also observe the obvious reject temperature dependence.     

Research into mechanical properties of reaction-bonded SiC composites at cryogenic temperatures

The mechanical properties of reaction-bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) composites at cryogenic temperatures have been reported for the first time. The results show that the flexural strength and fracture toughness increase from 277.93 ± 23.21 MPa to 396.74 ± 52.74 MPa and from 3.69 ± 0.45 MPa·m^1/2 to 4.98 ± 0.53 MPa·m^1/2 as the temperature decreases from 293 K to 77 K, respectively. The XRD analysis of the phase composition reveals that there is no phase transformation in the composites at cryogenic temperatures, indicating cryogenic mechanical properties are independent of phase composition. The enhancement of mechanical properties at 77 K over room temperature could be explained by the transition of fracture mode from predominant transgranular fracture to intergranular fracture and stronger resistance to crack propagation resulting from higher residual stress at 77 K. The above results demonstrate that such composites do not undergo similar deteriorations in the fracture toughness as other materials (some kinds of metals and polymers), so it is believed that such composites could be a potential material applied in cryogenic field.     

A low-power cryogenic analog to digital converter in standard CMOS technology

This paper presents a cryogenic successive approximation register (SAR) based analog to digital converter (ADC) in standard 0.35 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology that functions from 300 K (room temperature) down to 20 K. It has been designed to operate in low temperature mid- and far-infrared imaging systems. In order to ensure the circuit performance at the extreme temperatures, a dedicated integral-based comparator architecture is employed. SPICE models have been developed for circuit simulation at 20 K. At 20 K, the experimental results exhibit that the ADC achieves 1.6 LSB maximum differential nonlinearity (DNL), 1.7 LSB maximum integral nonlinearity (INL), and 10.4 effective number of bits (ENOB) at 100 kS/s sampling rate with a current consumption of 75 μA from a 3.3 V supply.     

TSAG-based cryogenic Faraday isolator

Thermooptical and magnetooptical properties of novel magnetoactive crystal terbium–scandium aluminum garnet were investigated at temperature range 80–300 K. It is shown that Verdet constant increases inversely proportional to temperature, and thermally induced depolarization, and the optical power of the thermal lens is reduced significantly with cooling from 290 K to 80 K. According to estimates, TSAG crystals in [1 1 1] orientation allow to create a cryogenic Faraday isolator provides a degree of isolation of 30 dB with the laser power exceeds ∼6 kW, it is estimated that the transition to the [0 0 1] orientation allows to provide degree of isolation of 30 dB at a laser power higher than 400 kW.     

Design and experimental investigation of the high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler

The development of a high cooling power and high efficiency 4.2 K two stage G-M cryocooler is critically important given its broad applications in low temperature superconductors, MRI, infrared detector and cryogenic electronics. A high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler has recently been designed and developed by ARS. The effect of expansion volume rate and operation conditions on the cooling performance has been experimentally investigated. A typical cooling performance of 1.5 W/4.2 K has been achieved, and the minimum temperature of the second stage is 2.46 K. The steady input power of the compressor at 60 Hz is 6.8 kW, while the operation speed of the rotary valve is 30 rpm. A maximum cooling power of 1.75 W/4.2 K has been obtained in test runs.     

Alumina shunt for precooling a cryogen-free 4He or 3He refrigerator

In this technical report a cryogen-free 1 K cryostat is described where the pot of the ⁴He refrigeration unit is precooled by the 2nd stage of a pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) from room temperature to T ∼ 3 K via a shunt made from sintered alumina (SA); the total mass of the 1 K stage is 3.5 kg. SA has high thermal conductivity at high temperatures; but below ∼50 K the thermal conductivity drops rapidly, almost following a T³-law. This makes SA an interesting candidate for the construction of a thermal shunt, especially as the heat capacity of metals drops by several orders of magnitude in the temperature range from 300 K to 3 K. At the base temperature of the PTC, the heat conduction of the shunt is so small that the heat leak into the 1 K stage is negligible.     

Preparation and thermal performance analysis of novel multilayer cladding structure composites

With regard to the adiabatic principle of insulation, a novel multilayer cladding structure composites (MCSC) with vacuum inside was put forward, which could be used in high temperature insulation field. In the composites, SiO₂ was used to fill the microcracks and protect the carbon matrix from oxidizing. This novel material was composed of two parts, one was the core material consisted of SiC foam ceramic, the other was the flawless outer shell consisted of carbon fiber reinforced composites with vacuum inside that produced by Chemical Vapor Infiltration (CVI) Pyrolytic Carbon (PyC) and silicasol-infiltration–sintering methods. Material density was 0.81 g/cm³. The effective thermal conductivity of MCSC ranged from 0.193 W/m · K to 0.721 W/m · K within the temperature from 303 K to 703 K, which was 13.5–23.3% lower than the value of SiC ceramic foam core materials. However, at 1473 K, the measured data of MCSC and SiC foam were 1.815 W/m · K and 1.911 W/m · K, respectively. It was only 5.02% lower than that of SiC foam.     

Pop-up of atoms among copper 13-atom island on Ag(1 1 1)

Results of molecular dynamics simulation of the diffusion of two-dimensional 13-atom Cu island on Ag(1 1 1), using many-body potentials obtained from the embedded-atom method, are presented. Simulations carried out at three different temperatures – 300, 500 and 700 K – show shape-changing multiple-atom processes are responsible for the diffusion of islet. Arrhenius plot of the diffusion coefficients provide effective energy barrier of 232.06 ± 10 mev and diffusion prefactor 1.034 × 10¹³ Å²/s. A striking and interesting feature of pop-up of single-atom at 500 K and three-atom at 700 K among 13-atom island is observed, with correlative changes in position and shape of the lower-layer adatoms. Surface dynamics in the presence of an island produced dislocations and fissures near the island.     

CFD modeling and experimental verification of a single-stage coaxial Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler without either double-inlet or multi-bypass operating at 30–35 K using mixed stainless steel mesh regenerator matrices

This paper presents the CFD modeling and experimental verifications of a single-stage inertance tube coaxial Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler operating at 30–35 K using mixed stainless steel mesh regenerator matrices without either double-inlet or multi-bypass. A two-dimensional axis-symmetric CFD model with the thermal non-equilibrium mode is developed to simulate the internal process, and the underlying mechanism of significantly reducing the regenerator losses with mixed matrices is discussed in detail based on the given six cases. The modeling also indicates that the combination of the given different mesh segments can be optimized to achieve the highest cooling efficiency or the largest exergy ratio, and then the verification experiments are conducted in which the satisfactory agreements between simulated and tested results are observed. The experiments achieve a no-load temperature of 27.2 K and the cooling power of 0.78 W at 35 K, or 0.29 W at 30 K, with an input electric power of 220 W and a reject temperature of 300 K.     

Manufacturing of lightweight low-current Nb3Sn ADR magnets operating at 10 K

Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators (ADRs) using superconducting magnets are under development for cooling many NASA instruments. Due to higher efficiency of cryocoolers at 10 K, Nb₃Sn magnets operating at 10 K are favored for space ADRs. Further, magnets need to be as light as possible and have low operating currents. This paper discusses technologies for the manufacture of lightweight, low-current Nb₃Sn magnets and reports on testing of a 35 mm bore by 60 mm long magnet. This magnet weighed less than 1 kg and successfully produced 3 T at 11.5 K with an operating current of 8 A.     

Cryogenic flat-panel gas-gap heat switch

A compact additive manufactured flat-panel gas-gap heat switch operating at cryogenic temperature is reported in this paper. A guarded-hot-plate apparatus has been developed to measure the thermal conductance of the heat switch with the heat sink temperature in the range of 100–180 K. The apparatus is cooled by a two-stage GM cooler and the temperature is controlled with a heater and a braided copper wire connection. A thermal guard is mounted on the hot side of the device to confine the heat flow axially through the sample. A gas handling system allows testing the device with different gas pressures in the heat switch. Experiments are performed at various heat sink temperatures, by varying gas pressure in the gas-gap and with helium, hydrogen and nitrogen gas. The measured off-conductance with a heat sink temperature of 115 K and the hot plate at 120 K is 0.134 W/K, the on-conductance with helium and hydrogen gases at the same temperatures is 4.80 W/K and 4.71 W/K, respectively. This results in an on/off conductance ratio of 37 ± 7 and 35 ± 6 for helium and hydrogen respectively. The experimental results matches fairly well with the predicted heat conductance at cryogenic temperatures.     

The thermoelectric properties of InxCo4Sb12 alloys prepared by HPHT

In_xCo₄Sb₁₂ (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) skutterudite compounds with bcc crystal structure have been prepared by high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) method. Through this method, the processing time can be reduced from a few days to half an hour. The constituent phases of all resultant samples were determined by X-ray diffraction. The Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, power factor and thermal conductivity of In_xCo₄Sb₁₂ (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) were all measured in the temperature range of 302–665 K. Among all the samples, In_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ showed the highest power factor of 31.3 μWcm^? 1 K^? 2 at 616 K and the lowest thermal conductivity of 2.193 Wm^? 1 K^? 1 at 568 K. As a result, the maximum dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) value of In_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ reached 0.88 at 665 K, which can be attributed to its low thermal conductivity and high power factor.     

Silica–silica polyimide buffered optical fibre irradiation and strength experiment at cryogenic temperatures for 355 nm pulsed lasers

A controlled UV-light delivery system is envisioned to be built in order to study the stability properties of superconducting strands. The application requires a wave guide from room temperature to cryogenic temperatures. Hydrogen loaded and unloaded polyimide buffered silica–silica 100 μm core fibres were tested at cryogenic temperatures. A thermal stress test was done at 1.9 K and at 4.2 K which shows that the minimal mechanical bending radius for the fibre can be 10 mm for testing (transmission was not measured). The cryogenic transmission loss was measured for one fibre to assess the magnitude of the transmission decrease due to microbending that takes place during cooldown. UV-irradiation degradation measurements were done for bent fibres at 4.2 K with a deuterium lamp and 355 nm pulsed lasers. The irradiation tests show that the fibres have transmission degradation only for wavelengths smaller than 330 nm due to the two photon absorption. The test demonstrates that the fibres are suitable for the cryogenic UV applications with 355 nm and 70 μJ pulsed lasers.