Dilution cryostats  for use in non-standard situations

Alain BENOIT 1 (presenting author)

1 CNRS, , France

In the 1980s, the development of dilution refrigerators focused primarily on lowering the minimum achievable temperature. In contrast, I developed various designs aimed at significantly simplifying the execution of experiments. Examples include a dilution insert designed to fit into a standard helium Dewar, and a cryostat intended for neutron scattering experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin. There is also the inverted cryostat mounted on a standard helium Dewar. I also propose an open-cycle dilution system suitable for balloon-borne or space-based experiments. Here, I present the dilution system used on the Planck satellite; we designed an adapted version based on mixture recycling, utilizing a fountain-effect pump to circulate the 4He and a small room-temperature pump for the 3He. This design could be used for future, longer-duration missions.

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