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

在CFI-VII竞赛中，麦吉尔获得了数百万美元的资金，用于升级纳米制造设施“Nanotools II”以及购买各种设备。热尔韦的实验室收到了48.4万美元（税前，实物除外），用于购买一台配备12 T超导磁体的无低温8 mK稀释制冷机（DR）。这种无低温系统对于热尔韦实验室的可持续性至关重要，因为传统的DR消耗大量的液氦，通常每周150升（约1000美元）。氦也是一种不可替代和不可再生的自然资源;加拿大几乎所有的氦都来自美国。美国土地管理局最近的政策（见“氦短缺对物理学基础研究的影响”[Nature Physics 10，467（2014）]在氦业务中产生了很大的不确定性，以及对低温系统供应商的价格上涨。为了保持在预算范围内，我们将系统的磁场从12 T降低到9 T，但尽管进行了这一轮和三轮公开招标，最终支付的金额为45.7万美元（Bluefors DR）+2.9万美元（林德的3 He气体）= 48.6万美元。因此，热尔韦的实验室没有足够的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）。这个小仪器套件可以购买共约68 k。由于DR系统已经在麦吉尔，并计划在2015年冬季安装，我们非常依赖NSERC RTI计划的资金，以便我们可以在2015年初夏开始运行该设备。

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.