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

Researchers to test new superconductor material, BSCCO2212

Materials scientists, physicists, magnet experts and engineers from seven institutions have come together on the "Very High Field Superconducting Magnet Collaboration" to test a new superconducting material, BSCCO2212.

NASA’s WISE to include Lockheed Martin cryostat

A dual-stage cryostat built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto CA, is onboard NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, which launched on December 14, 2009.

Daniel P. McGahn named AMSC President and Chief Operating Officer

American Superconductor Corporation has named Daniel P. McGahn President and Chief Operating Officer.

Oxford Instruments wins Corporate Excellence Award

From the Oxford Instruments website: The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan (BCCJ) has announced that Oxford Instruments KK has won the prestigious Corporate Excellence category at the 2009 British Business Awards.

NHMFL breaks previous record with new magnet

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has broken the record for the highest-field "resistive" magnet with their recently upgraded 36-tesla magnet, which uses electricity to generate high magnetic fields.

World’s thinnest high temperature superconductor shows potential

Physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have created layered films of cuprate (copper-oxide) materials that allow them to localize the superconducting behavior to a single atomic plane.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

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