Towards a Micro milliKelvin Cooler Array

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This application seeks to demonstrate a 4 K to millikelvin micro cooler through the demonstration of a new concept. Low temperature cryogenics has always been a relatively large scale technology i.e. dilution refrigerators and adiabatic demagnetisation refrigerators (ADR). Recent advances at MSSL in the millikelvin cryocooler (mKCC), solid state heat switches and magnet design enables a new concept of cooling in the 4 K to millikelvin region which enables a dramatic reduction in size. For example, the mKCC which provides 1 uW of cooling power at 100 mK, could be reduced from 5.6 (d) x 12 (w) x 30 (h) cm to a size of 4 (d) x 5 (w) x 5 (h) cm by using the new micro cooler concept. The ultimate coupling of this millikelvin micro cooler to higher temperature micro coolers, offers the prospect of a complete 300 K to 100 millikelvin micro cooler that could be used to cool state-of-the-art cryogenic detectors (e.g. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors MKIDs) and quantum computers in a very compact, portable system. In this application we seek the funds to demonstrate this concept by constructing a small prototype system which will have a continuous 100 mK cooling power of 0.3 uW, when interfaced at 4 K and have predicted dimensions of only 3 x 2 x 5 cm. This concept enables very easy adaptation for higher cooling powers and lower temperatures.