Cryogenic cooling apparatus employing heat sink and diffuser plate for cooling small objects

Abstract

Cooling apparatus has a cryogenic cooler which is connected thermally by a heat transfer system to a hot object to be cooled, wherein the heat transfer system is constructed of a cold finger, a heat sink or energy control module, and a thermal diffuser. The cold finger thermally connects the heat sink to the cooler, and the diffuser thermally connects the hot object to the heat sink. The heat sink is formed of a thermally conductive material, preferably lithium which has a high energy storage capacity, and which is enclosed within a housing of thermally conductive material to prevent interaction of the lithium chemically with the external environment. The diffuser is fabricated of solid industrial diamond which has great thermal diffusivity at cryogenic temperatures to distribute, virtually instantaneously, and over a wide area of the heat sink much larger than the hot object, the energy dissipated within the hot object. In the case wherein the hot object is a semiconductor laser, the material of the lasing medium is contiguous the diffuser, the diffuser extending well beyond the semiconductor material to provide a wide and highly conductive thermal path from the laser to the heat sink. A vacuum-tight housing, having one or more windows transparent to radiation, encloses the laser, the heat sink, and the cold finger to provide thermal insulation and prevent contamination of the laser from an external environment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.