Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

LHC cryogenics system: The challenge of keeping cool

The LHC is one of the coldest places on Earth, with superconducting magnets—the key defining feature—that operate at 1.9K. While there might be colder places in other laboratories, none compares to the LHC's scale and complexity.

A theoretical device could bring practical spintronics closer to reality

Seiji Yunoki and colleague Shin-ichi Hikino from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science in Wako, Japan, have now proposed a device that instead of moving electrons is able to transport information using electron spin over long distances.

University of Tübingen physicists create interface between atoms and superconductors

Professors József Fortágh, Dieter Kölle and Reinhold Kleiner of the University ofTübingen’s Institute of Physics have developed a new electronic component which will help to deal with the instability of quantum bits, or qubits.

IU physicist receives lifetime achievement award for particle accelerator work

The US Particle Accelerator School will present S.Y. Lee with its USPAS Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology. Lee, professor in the Department of Physics at Indiana University Bloomington, will receive the award at the 2013 North American Particle Accelerator Conference held Sept. 29 to Oct. 4...

Report on 23rd International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-23)

The twenty-third International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-23) was held in Boston at the Westin Copley Hotel from July 14 through July 19. Dr. Bruce Strauss was the General Chairman of the conference; Joe Minervini of MIT served as the Program Chair; Larry Masur of Bruker was the Exhibits Chair;...

Professor John Clem dies August 2

Professor John Clem passed away on August 2, 2013, after a four-year battle with mesothelioma. He was known as the "father of the 2 dimensional pancake vortex."

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

Latest in Cryo Central

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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