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SESAME Delivers Its First Light

Scientists at SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) recorded first monochromatic light through the XAFS/XRF spectroscopy beamline in November, signaling the start of the laboratory’s experimental program. The beamline, SESAME’s first to come on stream, delivers X-ray light that will be used to carry out...

FAST Electron Beam Achieves Milestone Energy

In November, a team at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility ramped up a beam of electrons to 300 million electronvolts, a double milestone event, according to the lab. For one, the beam surpassed the threshold needed to launch a new accelerator physics program at Fermi National Accelerator...

Argonne Welcomes GRETINA Back Home

A world-class gamma ray spectrometer called GRETINA has returned to Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) for a second run expected to last 18 months. Scientists will use the instrument in conjunction with Argonne’s Fragment Mass Analyzer, where it will enable studies of nuclei at or near the proton drip line...

UTSW Releases First Atomic Structure From its Cryo-EM Facility

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have published a 3-D atomic structure of the ion channel found in mammals that is implicated in a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disease in humans. The work marks the first such structure determined using the university’s $17 million cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) facility.

Novel Lenses Enable X-ray Microscopy with Record Resolution

Researchers at DESY have reported the creation of novel lenses that enable X-ray microscopy with record resolution. The new lenses consist of over 10,000 alternating layers of a new material combination—tungsten carbide and silicon carbide—that allowed the team to achieve a focus spot size with a diameter of less than...

ICC20 Accepting Abstracts for 2018 Conference

Abstract submission is now open for the 20th International Cryocooler Conference (ICC20), the premier global gathering on cryocooler technology. The meeting will feature oral and poster presentation sessions, plus CSA's Foundations of Cryocoolers short course.

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Joule-Thomson Effect

The Joule-Thomson (JT) effect is a thermodynamic process that occurs when a fluid expands from high pressure to low pressure at constant enthalpy (an isenthalpic process). Such a process can be approximated in the real world by expanding a fluid from high pressure to low pressure across a valve. Under...

Current Leads

One of the challenges of using superconducting magnets is the connection of the magnet to a room temperature power supply. This is accomplished via current leads. The trick is that current leads should ideally have a low heat leak, since they connect room temperature to cryogenic temperature, while at the...

Multilayer Insulation

Multilayer insulation (also referred to as superinsulation) is a key component in the reduction of heat leak to cryogenic systems due to thermal radiation. MLI consists of a series of uncooled reflective surfaces placed in the vacuum space between two surfaces, one warmer than the other. Generally speaking, for ideal...

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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...