D. I. Bradley

New methods for nuclear cooling into the microkelvin regime

We describe the philosophy and practice of a new method of nuclear cooling in which the copper refrigerant is immersed directly in the3He sample to be cooled using a guard cell configuration. The method has been used to cool liquid3He to ∼120 µK. We also describe a variant of the method intended for cooling metallic samples, by which a platinum NMR thermometer has been cooled to ∼13 µK. Finally, in an appendix we suggest a very simple nuclear cooling method utilizing the copper flakes used in the manufacture of paint, which will cool liquid3He to around 1 mK with a minimum of cryogenic effort.

Generation, evolution, and decay of pure quantum turbulence : a full Biot-Savart simulation

A zero-temperature superfluid is arguably the simplest system in which to study complex fluid dynamics, such as turbulence. We describe computer simulations of such turbulence and compare the results directly with recent experiments in superfluid He-3-B. We are able to follow the entire process of the production, evolution, and decay of quantum turbulence. We find striking agreement between simulation and experiment and gain insights into the mechanisms involved.

A dilution refrigerator combining low base temperature, high cooling power and low heat leak for use with nuclear cooling

Abstract We describe the design philosophy, design, construction and performance of a dilution refrigerator specifically intended for nuclear cooling experiments in the submillikelvin regime. Attention has been paid from the outset to minimizing sources of heat leaks, and to achieving a low base temperature and relatively high cooling power below 10 mK. The refrigerator uses sintered silver heat exchangers similar to those developed at Grenoble. The machine has a base temperature of 3 mK or lower and can precool a copper nuclear specimen in 6.8 T to 8 mK in 70 h. The heat leak to the innermost nuclear stage is

Vortex generation in superfluid 3He by a vibrating grid

Recently we have found that a vibrating wire resonator produces turbulence in superfluid 3He-B at low temperatures when driven above its pair-breaking critical velocity. The vorticity is produced along with a beam of excitations from pair breaking. Here, we discuss preliminary measurements of turbulence generated from an oscillating grid at low temperatures. The grid oscillator is made from a goal-post shaped vibrating wire resonator supporting a fine copper mesh. While the dissipation by a conventional wire resonator is dominated by pair-breaking at the velocities required for turbulence generation, the dissipation of the grid oscillator appears to be dominated by turbulence. This allows us to generate turbulence without the unwanted effects of a quasiparticle beam. Preliminary measurements suggest that the grid turbulence has a rather different behaviour from that generated by conventional wire resonators.

Nanoelectronic primary thermometry below 4 mK.

Cooling nanoelectronic structures to millikelvin temperatures presents extreme challenges in maintaining thermal contact between the electrons in the device and an external cold bath. It is typically found that when nanoscale devices are cooled to ∼10 mK the electrons are significantly overheated. Here we report the cooling of electrons in nanoelectronic Coulomb blockade thermometers below 4 mK. The low operating temperature is attributed to an optimized design that incorporates cooling fins with a high electron–phonon coupling and on-chip electronic filters, combined with low-noise electronic measurements. By immersing a Coulomb blockade thermometer in the 3He/4He refrigerant of a dilution refrigerator, we measure a lowest electron temperature of 3.7 mK and a trend to a saturated electron temperature approaching 3 mK. This work demonstrates how nanoelectronic samples can be cooled further into the low-millikelvin range.We report the cooling of electrons in nanoelectronic Coulomb blockade thermometers below 4 mK. Above 7 mK the devices are in good thermal contact with the environment, well isolated from electrical noise, and not susceptible to self-heating. This is attributed to an optimised design that incorporates cooling fins with a high electronphonon coupling and on-chip electronic filters, combined with a low-noise electronic measurement setup. Below 7 mK the electron temperature is seen to diverge from the ambient temperature. By immersing a Coulomb Blockade Thermometer in the He/He refrigerant of a dilution refrigerator, we measure a lowest electron temperature of 3.7 mK.

Viscosity of the3He-4He dilute phase in the mixing chamber of a dilution refrigerator

The viscosity of the dilute phase of a3He-4He solution has been measured using a vibrating wire viscometer situated in the mixing chamber of a dilution refrigerator. The viscosity was extracted from the damping of the resonator for temperatures between 3.7 mK and 100 mK. In the low-temperature Fermi liquid regime ηT2=48×10−9 N sec m−2 K2. For temperatures less than 100 mK, the viscometer is a useful secondary thermometer that is not strongly dependent on the applied magnetic field.

Spatial extent of quantum turbulence in non-rotating superfluid 3He-B

Abstract Quantum turbulence has been shown to reflect a beam of quasiparticles in the B-phase of superfluid 3 He by Andreev processes. We have investigated the evolution of the turbulence generated by a vibrating wire resonator driven at high velocities and temperatures down to ∼0.1Tc. The vibrating wire produces vorticity together with the expected quasiparticle beam whenever the wire velocity exceeds the critical pair breaking velocity. By using an array of detector wires we are able to investigate the development of the turbulence both in space and time. We observe that the turbulence propagates preferentially along the direction of the quasiparticle beam and drops off in a roughly exponential manner with a decay length of the order of 2 mm .

Simple design for dilution refrigerator with base temperature of 2.3 mK

A simple design is presented for a dilution refrigerator. Construction is not difficult. This refrigerator has been designed to allow measurements of the properties of small samples at low temperatures and to precool small nuclear demagnetization stages. The design consists of a concentric tube heat exchanger and several sintered silver discrete heat exchangers. The minimum base temperature was measured to be 2.3 mK.

Breaking the superfluid speed limit in a fermionic condensate

An experiment reports the unexpected behaviour of an object in uniform motion in superfluid helium-3 above the Landau critical velocity — the limit above which it can generate excitations at no energy cost.

On-chip magnetic cooling of a nanoelectronic device

We demonstrate significant cooling of electrons in a nanostructure below 10 mK by demagnetisation of thin-film copper on a silicon chip. Our approach overcomes the typical bottleneck of weak electron-phonon scattering by coupling the electrons directly to a bath of refrigerated nuclei, rather than cooling via phonons in the host lattice. Consequently, weak electron-phonon scattering becomes an advant- age. It allows the electrons to be cooled for an experimentally useful period of time to temperatures colder than the dilution refrigerator platform, the incoming electrical connections, and the host lattice. There are efforts worldwide to reach sub-millikelvin electron temperatures in nanostructures to study coherent electronic phenomena and improve the operation of nanoelectronic devices. On-chip magnetic cooling is a promising approach to meet this challenge. The method can be used to reach low, local electron temperatures in other nanostructures, obviating the need to adapt traditional, large demagnetisation stages. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to a nanoelectronic primary thermometer that measures its internal electron temperature. Using an optimised demagnetisation process, we demonstrate cooling of the on-chip electrons from 9 mK to below 5 mK for over 1000 seconds.