Cold Facts Digital – Page 63 – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

Fine-Tuned Cryogenic Clock Improves Computing Capabilities

Researchers from the University of Adelaide in South Australia have enhanced the cryogenic sapphire clock to achieve near attosecond capability. Also known as a microwave oscillator, the clock features a five cm cylinder-shaped crystal cooled to -269°C.

New Graphene Hybrid Exceeds DOE Goal for Hydrogen Storage

Layers of graphene separated by nanotube pillars of boron nitride may be a suitable material to store hydrogen fuel in cars, according to a new computational study from Rice University published in the journal Langmuir. The material held 14.77 percent of its weight in hydrogen at -321°F, exceeding both current...

New Study Shows Ultracold Electrons Forming Quantum Fluid State

A research collaboration between Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin has demonstrated that electrons kept at very low temperatures can spontaneously begin to travel in identical elliptical paths on the surface of a crystal of bismuth, forming a quantum fluid state. Such behavior was anticipated theoretically during the past...

Experiment Achieves Strongest Coupling Between Light and Matter

Researchers at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) in Ontario recorded an interaction between light and matter 10 times larger than previously seen, a coupling between photons and qubits so strong, the group says, that it opens the door to a realm of physics and applications unattainable...

Ames Scientist Receives APS McGroddy Prize

The American Physical Society (APS) has awarded Professor Paul C. Canfield, a senior scientist at the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, with its James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. Over the past three decades, he has helped discover, understand and optimize materials with ferromagnetic and superconducting states as...

CUORE Ready for First Cooldown

Deep within a mountain in Italy, scientists have finished assembling the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) and are now preparing to cool its detector to operating temperature for the first time. More than one decade in the making, the experiment will look for a rare process thought to...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

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...

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?

CATEGORIES