Method and device for cooling a gas

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and to a device for the vibration-free cooling of a gas. In a first cooling step, the gas is brought into thermal contact with a first cooling medium. In a second cooling step, it then flows through a liquefier, which is in thermal contact with a second cooling medium, and is thereby cooled by no more than 10 K. This low temperature gradient is primarily responsible for the gaseous or liquid gas flow exiting the liquefier being highly homogeneous and laminar. It is therefore suited for further processing into a flow of solid pellets having consistent size. These pellets can be transported across several meters in a vacuum and are therefore suited as a target material for generating a plasma by way of intensive laser radiation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.