Small-size hermetic helium 3 refrigeration stage
AssigneeAgence Nationale de Valorisation de la Recherche (ANVAR)
InventorsGerald Chanin, Jean-Pierre Torre
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Abstract
The invention provides a small-size hermetic refrigeration stage containing helium 3 and easily incorporated in a conventional helium 4 metal cryostat. The stage consists essentially of a metallic enclosure containing a certain volume of helium 3 and having a first receptacle constituting the pumping chamber and consisting a mass of an adsorbing body for the helium 3 at a very low temperature, a second receptacle constituting a condenser for the cooled helium 3 and a duct. The stage of the invention is particularly suited for maintaining the sensitive element of an infrared detector at a temperature of less than 1.degree. K.
Claims11
A helium 3 cyrostat, comprising a fluid-tight metallic enclosure containing a charge of helium 3, at a pressure which is high at the ambient temperature, said enclosure including two receptacles and a duct of very low thermal conductivity communicatively connecting said receptacles to each other;
- a mass of a body able to adsorb the entire volume of helium 3 contained in the enclosure, said mass being provided in one of said receptacles;
- means for heating said mass to a temperature at which the desorption of helium 3 in said one receptacle is substantially complete with attendant condensation of helium 3 in the other of said receptacles;
- a helium 4 cooler having a wall;
- and means for intermittently establishing thermal contact between said receptacles and said wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.