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

A final answer on how high-temperature superconductors don’t work?

For decades, physicists have debated the origins of high-temperature superconductivity—the ability of some materials to carry electricity without resistance at temperatures up to 138 kelvin. Now, new data nix one possible explanation, albeit a less popular one, a team claims. If the finding holds up, it would sever any connection...

Leon M. Lederman receives 2012 Vannevar Bush Award

The National Science Board (NSB) announced on March 26 that Nobel laureate, Leon Lederman, is the 2012 recipient of its Vannevar Bush Award.

Copper-based materials show strange spin states

Just as water, ice, and steam are all phases of the same material that are influenced by temperature and pressure, new research shows how transitions of state work in very simple lattices primarily composed of copper.

Neutrons uncover new density waves in fermion liquids

Scientists working at the Institut Laue-Langevin, the world’s flagship center for neutron science, have carried out the first investigation of two-dimensional fermion liquids using neutron scattering, and discovered a new type of very short wave-length density wave.

Air Liquide and Astrium create EuroCryospace

Air Liquide and Astrium have announced the creation of EuroCryospace, the new European expansion of Cryospace, created nearly 25 years ago by both companies, for the development and production of Ariane cryogenic tanks.

MicroBooNE begins construction, elects co-spokesperson

Fermilab's neutrino experiment, MicroBooNE, is beginning the full construction phase for the detector, after DOE announced the official Critical Decision 3b approval on March 29.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Helium II

Helium II (He II) refers to the second liquid phase of the most abundant helium isotope (4He). Helium II is also referred to as superfluid helium. Helium II occurs once the temperature of the liquid helium drops below 2.17K. The phase transition between the first liquid phase of Helium (referred...

Latest in Cryo Central

Air Separation and Liquefaction

by Nils Tellier, PE, President, EPSIM Corporation (CSA CSM) nils@epsim.us All illustrations courtesy EPSIM Corporation Background History of Air Separation and Liquefaction This section builds on a rich history of methods to develop deep refrigeration and cryogenic liquefaction during the 19th Century. You are encouraged to read Cryo Central’s History...

Bose-Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate, first proposed in 1925 by Albert Einstein based on work done by Satyendra Nath Bose (the same Bose from whom the term boson is derived), is a super-cold state of matter in which almost all of the individual atoms have “condensed” down to the lowest possible quantum...

Cold Technology for Pest Control

While it does not reach temperatures cold enough to be called cryogenic, carbon dioxide snow is at the heart of a new way of dealing with unwanted pests. It utilizes a quick freezing process that takes advantage of the properties of carbon dioxide snow and has a number of benefits...

Cryogenic Finishing

The following 3 articles discuss the uses and procedures of various type of cryogenic finishing. 1) By Robin A. Rhodes, Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Cryogenic Deflashing is employed to remove undesired residual mold flash that remains on molded parts after they are removed or ejected from the...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Seeking recommendations for commercial sensors

I would like to measure vibrations in small LHe cryostats. Could anybody recommend commercial sensors which would be suitable for the purpose? I am interested in the frequency range between 1Hz and a couple of KHz, with particular attention to the low frequency side.

Estimating cost of carbon steel, pure helium storage tanks

In order to perform an indicative cost assessment of our helium cryogenic plant (still in the design phase), I need an estimation of the cost of carbon steel room temperature pure helium storage tanks. The storage pressure is 20 bar. Can anyone give me suggestions about how to estimate the...

Supplier of pressure sensor that works down to 4.2 K

In an actual experiment we would like to measure the static pressure in a cryostat in the range between one and four bar. Therefore we are looking for some (more or less) cheap pressure sensors that work in liquid helium in the pressure range up to five bar. Unfortunately all...

Looking for reference/textbook suggestions

Can you suggest some reference textbooks for practical thermodynamics applications in cryogenic fields? I need textbooks with cryogenics calculations and examples, dimensioning procedures, second principle applications in cryogenics, heat load calculations, cryogenic pump application, etc. Do such books exist? Does any similar source of information exist?

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