A continuously-cooled 3He/4He phase separation refrigerator

2025/03/13 by P. H. Kim, M. Hirschel, Kim, P. H. +6 · 1 voice
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamic Systems and Engines #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #cond-mat.other #physics.ins-det

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.10754

openalex publication_date 2025/03/13 · arxiv published 2025/03/13 · arxiv updated 2025/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We present a novel cooling method that uses the phase separation and evaporative cooling of 3He to reach and continuously maintain sub-kelvin temperatures. While less complex than a dilution refrigerator, the system performs similarly to a continuous 3He cryostat but with a simpler design, a more efficient cooldown process, and a significantly smaller 3He requirement. Our prototype demonstrated a base temperature of 585 mK and 3 mW cooling power at 700 mK using just two gaseous liters of 3He. Lower temperatures could be expected in systems with improved heat exchangers and pumping efficiency.

Discussions

• P. H. Kim, M. Hirschel, J. Suranyi, J. P. Davis: A continuously-cooled 3He/4He phase separation refrigerator https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10754 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.10754 https://arxiv.org/html/25 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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