Urgent Acquisition of a Small Instrumentation Suite for a CFI-funded Dilution Refrigerator

为 CFI 资助的稀释冰箱紧急采购一套小型仪表套件

• 批准号: 472829-2015
• 负责人: Gervais, Guillaume
• 金额: $ 4.99万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=564858
• 关键词: Urgent; Acquisition; Small; Instrumentation; Suite

In the CFI-VII competition, McGill has been granted several million dollars to upgrade the nanofabrication facility 'Nanotools II' as well as to purchase a variety of equipment. Gervais' lab received $484k (before taxes, in-kind excluded) to purchase a cryofree 8 mK dilution refrigerator (DR) fitted with a 12T superconducting magnet. This cryofree system is paramount to Gervais lab's sustainability, since a traditional DR consumes a large amount of liquid helium, typically 150 liters (~1000$) per week. Helium is also an irreplaceable and a non-renewable natural resource; futhermore nearly all the helium in Canada comes from the USA. Recent politics from the US Bureau of Land Management (see "The impact of helium shortages on basic research in physics"[Nature Physics 10, 467 (2014)] generated a great deal of uncertainty in the helium business, as well as a price hike for the vendors of cryofree systems. In order to stay within budget, we have lowered the field from 12 to 9T for our system, but despite this and three public round of tender, the final amount paid was $457k (Bluefors DR) + $29k (3He gas from Linde)= $486k. As a consequence, Gervais' lab has no CFI money left to purchase the small instrumentation suite (lock-in amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, current/voltage source, etc, etc) that is absolutely required to run experiments. This small instrumentation suite can be bought for a total of ~68k . Since the DR system is already at McGill, and its installation planned in the Winter of 2015, we are critically relying on the requested funds from the NSERC RTI program so that we can start to operate the apparatus in early Summer 2015.

在 CFI-VII 竞赛中，麦吉尔获得了数百万美元用于升级纳米加工设施“Nanotools II”以及购买各种设备。 Gervais 的实验室收到了 48.4 万美元（税前，不包括实物）购买一台配备 12T 超导磁体的冷冻 8 mK 稀释冰箱 (DR)。这种冷冻系统对于 Gervais 实验室的可持续性至关重要，因为传统的 DR 消耗大量液氦，通常每周 150 升（约 1000 美元）。氦气也是一种不可替代、不可再生的自然资源；此外，加拿大几乎所有的氦气都来自美国。美国土地管理局最近的政策（参见“氦气短缺对物理学基础研究的影响”[NaturePhysics 10, 467 (2014)]给氦气行业带来了很大的不确定性，以及冷冻系统供应商的价格上涨。为了保持在预算范围内，我们将系统的场从 12T 降低到 9T，但尽管如此和三轮公开招标，最终支付的金额还是45.7 万美元 (Bluefors DR) + 29,000 美元（林德的 3He 气体）= 486,000 美元。因此，Gervais 实验室没有剩余的 CFI 资金来购买运行实验所必需的小型仪器套件（锁定放大器、前置放大器、电流/电压源等）。这个小型仪器套件的总价约为 68k。由于 DR 系统已经处于 麦吉尔，其安装计划于 2015 年冬季进行，我们非常依赖 NSERC RTI 计划所要求的资金，以便我们能够在 2015 年夏初开始运行该设备。