S O R P Tio N -C O O Le D M in Ia Tu R E D Ilu T Io N R E Fr Ig E R a to R S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sorption-cooled M iniature D ilution Refrigerators FOR AsTROPHYSICAL APPLICATIONS Gustav Teleberg A T h e s is s u b m it t e d t o C a r d if f U n iv e r sit y FOR THE DEGREE OF D o c t o r o f P h il o s o p h y S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 6 UMI Number: U584881 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584881 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Author Gustav Teleberg Title: Sorption-cooled Miniature Dilution Refrigerators for Astrophysical Applications Date of submission: September 2006 Address: School of Physics & Astronomy Cardiff University 5 The Parade Cardiff, CF24 3YB Wales, UK Permission is granted to Cardiff University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above tide upon the request of individuals or institutions. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the authors written permission. Copyright © 2006 Gustav Teleberg Typesetting: BTjj^C 2e using MiKTeX 2.4 and W inEdt 5.3. Figures: Origin Pro 7.5, SolidWorks 2004 and AutoCad 2005 Fonts: Adobe Garamond Pro, equations in Computer Modem D e c l a r a t io n This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrendy submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed: C a n d id ^ T ^ D a te : £ f c / o y o f c St a t e m e n t i This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed: Candidate Date: St a t e m e n t 2 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed: Candida! Date: Z ty O 'l /P 6 St a t e m e n t 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for pho tocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the tide and summary to be available to outside organizations. Signed: Candidate Date: 16 JAN 2007 <Stig vi A bstract The next generation of balloon-borne and ground-based mm/sub-mm astronomy experi ments will require operating temperatures near or below 0.1 K. When these experiments are operated remotely on platforms or at sites with limited infrastructure and maintenance sup port, a compact and reliable dilution refrigerator becomes essential. We have investigated two different dilution refrigerators in order to evaluate which system is most suitable for these applications. We have carried out a feasibility study of the simplest of the two technologies, a single-shot dilution refrigerator. A thermal model for predicting its performance has been developed, and a first prototype which achieved temperatures of about 70 mK was built. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of a single-shot system and show how minor changes to the current design can make it useful for many astronomy applications. The second dilution refrigerator is based on the principle of condensation pump ing. We have built and integrated such a refrigerator with a pulse-tube cooler in order to create a completely cryogen-free system. Temperatures below 50 mK have been achieved, and temperatures below 100 mK have been maintained for more than 10 hours with several micro-Watt of cooling power. Using two 3 He sorption coolers and gas-gap heat switches we have also demonstrated how this cooler can be operated in a continuous mode. The entire system is frilly automatic in operation and can be controlled and monitored remotely through a standard http protocol. We show how existing thermal models can be used to pre dict the cooling power and lowest achievable temperatures of the refrigerator. Experimental results are analysed and used to estimate the condensation efficiency, the performance of the heat exchangers and the 3 He circulation rate. A cknowledgements First of all, thanks to my supervisor Lucio Piccirillo for giving me the opportunity to do a PhD in Cardiff, for your support throughout the project, your enthusiasm and optimistic approach to any problems and for giving me more responsibility than what I probably de serve. Also, thanks to Kate Isaak for all your help and many valuable comments on this thesis. Special thanks to Simon Chase, without whom this project would never have left the drawing board. Thanks for many valuable conversations, debates and comments to my work. Your experience and knowledge has played a key part throughout this project, and I look forward to any future collaboration... and whiskey sessions. Thanks to Rob Tucker for helping me out with numerous electronic problems. If it was not for you, I would probably still be confused with grounding issues and all sorts of EMI and RF pickup. Thanks to Brian Kiernan, Jeff Trivett and Glynn Summers for all your engineer ing support and for keeping up with my repeated requests for urgent bits and pieces to be machined. I have certainly learned to appreciate skilled and flexible engineering work, and realized the importance of such knowledge in any cryogenic project. Also, thanks to Olivier Mallie for patiently answering all my questions about SolidWorks and IDEAS, and for your help with tensile testing of G10 samples. Thanks to Michael Zemcov, Simon Doyle, Bruce Sibthorpe, Robbie Auld and Dou glas Haigh for being such reliable Tut’n Shive comrades. May the sun always shine on the god-blessed building which became our second home. Thanks to Lois Smallwod for help in typesetting and grammar, and for every now and then reminding me about the world outside the lab. Tack mamma och pappa for erat stod och for att ni har uppmuntrat mig till att fortsatta lasa och jobba, aven nar jag valt att gora det lang hemmifran — ni ar varldens basta foraldrar! C o n t e n t s 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Scientific B ackground ........................................................................................... I 1.1.1 Astronomy at mm/sub-mm wavelengths ............................................ I 1.1.2 Detector technologies ............................................................................. 3 1.1.3 Noise Fundamentals of Bolometers ...................................................... 5 1.2 Mechanical Coolers .............................................................................................. 7 1.2.1 Pulse-tube Coolers .................................................................................... 9 1.2 .2 The PTC thermal cycle ............................................................................. n 1.3 Cryogenic Systems for sub-Kelvin A pplications ................................................... 13 1.3.1 Properties of liquid h eliu m .......................................................................13 1.3 .2 Adsorption .................................................................................................14 1.3.3 Sorption coolers ...........................................................................................15 1.3.4 Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators .................................................. 19 1.3.5 Dilution refrigerators .................................................................................21 1.4 Candidates for a Miniature Dilution Refrigerator ................ 25 1.5 About this Thesis ....................................................................................................... 28 2 Cryogen-free Sorption Coolers 31 2.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................31 2.2 PTC Cryostat ...........................................................................................................32 2.2.1 Cryostat assem bly .......................................................................................32 2 .2 .2 Thermal conductivity of support structure ...............................................34 2.2.3 Thermal conduction of copper straps ..................................................... 36 2.2.4 FE analysis of support structure ................................................................38 2.2.5 Analytical analysis of support s tru c tu re .................................................. 38 2 .2 .6 Compression and tension tests of support stru ctu re .............................. 42 2.3 Sorption coolers ....................................................................................................... 45 2.3.1 Pumping s p e e d .......................................................................................... 45 2 .3 .2 Thermal m odel ......................................................................................... 4 7 2.3.3 Best-fit of thermal model to experimental d a t a .....................................48 2.4 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................51 3 Heat Switches 53 3.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................53