7 He– He Dilution Refrigerator...A group at Leiden University built the ﬁrst refrigerator based on this principle in 1965 and reached a temperature of 0.22K [7.1], the lowest temperature

7

The 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator

Until about the 1950s the only method of achieving temperatures below1 K was magnetic refrigeration using demagnetization of a paramagnetic salt(Chap. 9). This method was then replaced for the temperature range downto 0.3 K by the 3He refrigerator, as discussed in Chap. 6. But in 1962 a newproposal for continuous refrigeration with liquid helium to even lower tem-peratures was published by H. London, G.R. Clarke, and E. Mendoza, basedon an idea proposed by H. London about ten years earlier [7.1]. In contrastto the helium refrigerators discussed earlier, where the latent heat of evapora-tion is used for cooling, it was suggested to use the heat of mixing of the twohelium isotopes to obtain low temperatures. A group at Leiden Universitybuilt the first refrigerator based on this principle in 1965 and reached atemperature of 0.22 K [7.1], the lowest temperature obtained by the heliumliquids up to that time. Only one year later, B.S. Neganov and co-workers inDubna, and H.E. Hall and co-workers in Manchester published their resultswith an improved design of a “3He–4He refrigerator” by which they couldreduce this temperature by about a factor of three; the final version of theDubna refrigerator soon reached 25 mK [7.1]. The 3He–4He dilution refriger-ation method to be discussed in detail in this chapter is the only continu-ous refrigeration method for temperatures below 0.3 K. In addition, magneticfields, often needed in low-temperature experiments, have negligible effects onits performance. Today it is the most important refrigeration technology forthe temperature range between about 5 mK and 1 K, and it is the base fromwhich lower temperatures can be reached.

The complexity of a 3He–4He refrigerator for the temperature range above30 mK is comparable to the complexity of a 3He cryostat. Actually, existing3He cryostats can easily be modified to 3He–4He refrigerators. If the temper-ature range has to be extended to about 15 mK, the system, of course, willbecome more involved, but it can still be built in the laboratory workshop. Ifthe temperature has to be reduced to values even lower than 10 mK, substan-tial experience, time and manpower are necessary to achieve this goal, if youwant to build the refrigerator yourself. Fortunately, these days commercial

150 7 The 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator

dilution refrigerators are available for temperatures down to about 4 mK,(more typical is Tmin = 8–10 mK) but they are expensive. The minimumtemperature obtained by the method to be discussed is slightly below 2 mK,achieved by Frossati and co-workers, formerly at Grenoble and then at theUniversity of Leiden [7.2,7.3], as well as by Pickett and co-workers at LancasterUniversity [7.4].

Today, 3He–4He dilution refrigerators are part of virtually all apparatusreaching T ≤ 0.3K. Detailed discussions of the principle and methods of dilu-tion refrigeration have been published by Wheatley et al. [7.5–7.7], Radebaughand Siegwarth [7.8], and Frossati [7.2,7.3] and their status in the seventieth oflast century were reviewed in [7.9–7.11]. I will start with a discussion of somerelevant properties of 3He–4He mixtures.

7.1 Properties of Liquid 3He–4He Mixtures

In this section I will discuss the properties of isotopic liquid helium mixtures –the working fluid of the refrigerator – that are relevant for the design andoperation of a 3He–4He dilution refrigerator. For more details the reader isreferred to the specialized literature [7.2–7.18].

In the following, the respective concentrations of the two helium isotopesare expressed as

x = x3 =n3

n3 + n4and x4 =

n4n3 + n4

, (7.1)

where n3(n4) is the number of 3He(4He) atoms or moles.

7.1.1 Phase Diagram and Solubility

The x–T phase diagram of liquid 3He–4He mixtures at saturated vapour pres-sure is depicted in Fig. 7.1. This figure shows several of the remarkable featuresof these isotopic liquid mixtures. First we consider the pure liquids. We arereminded that liquid 4He becomes superfluid at a temperature of 2.177 K.On the other hand, the Fermi liquid 3He does not show any phase transitionin the temperature range considered in this chapter (actually this liquid alsobecomes superfluid in the low millikelvin temperature range; see Sect. 2.3.6).The temperature of the superfluid phase transition of liquid 4He is depressedif we dilute the Bose liquid 4He with the Fermi liquid 3He. Eventually the4He superfluidity ceases to exist for 3He concentrations above 67.5%. At thisconcentration and at a temperature of 0.867 K the λ-line meets the phaseseparation line; below this temperature the two isotopes are only miscible forcertain limiting concentrations which depend on the temperature. The shadedphase separation region in the figure is a non-accessible range of temperaturesand concentrations for helium mixtures. If we cool a helium mixture (with

7.1 Properties of Liquid 3He–4He Mixtures 151

3He concentration, x

Tem

pera

ture

, T [k

]

TF

2.0

1.5Superfluid

3He/4He

Normalfluid 3He/4He

1.0

0.5

00 0.50 0.75 1.000.25

Phase

-separ

ationline

Two-phase region

Lambda line

Fig. 7.1. Phase diagram of liquid 3He–4He mixtures at saturated vapour pressure.The diagram shows the lambda line for the superfluid transition of 4He, the phaseseparation line of the mixtures below which they separate into a 4He-rich and a3He-rich phase, and the line of the Fermi temperatures TF of the

3He component(From [7.11, 7.17] which give references to the original work from which data weretaken to construct this phase diagram)

x > 6.6%) to temperatures below 0.87 K, the liquid will eventually separateinto two phases, one rich in 4He and the other rich in 3He. Because of itslower density, the 3He-rich liquid floats on top of the 4He-rich liquid. If thetemperature is decreased to close to absolute zero, we see that the 3He-richliquid becomes pure 3He. But the great surprise occurs at the 4He-rich side.Here the concentration of the dilute isotope, 3He, does not approach zero forT approaching zero, but rather reaches a constant concentration of 6.6% 3Hein 4He at saturated vapour pressure even for T = 0K. This finite solubilityis of utmost importance for 3He–4He dilution refrigeration technology. Thelimiting concentrations of the diluted isotopes on the phase separation line atlow temperatures and saturated vapour pressure are given by

x4 = 0.85T 3/2 e−0.56/T [7.12,7.19] , (7.2)

x = x3 = 0.066(1 + 8.3T 2) (for T < 0.1K) [7.12,7.20,7.21] . (7.3)

The solubility of 3He in 4He can be increased to almost 9.5% by raising thepressure to 10 bar (Fig. 7.2) [7.20,7.21].

As we will see below, cooling in a 3He–4He dilution refrigerator is achievedby transferring 3He atoms from the pure 3He phase to the diluted, mostly 4Hecontaining phase. The cooling capacity in this cooling process is the heat of


Pressure, p [bar]

Lim

iting

con

cent

ratio

n, x

[%]

9.8

9.0

8.2

7.4

6.6

0 4 8 12 16 20 24

Fig. 7.2. Limiting low-temperature concentration of 3He in 4He at T = 50mK asa function of pressure (after data from [7.20,7.21])

mixing of the two isotopes. But why is the finite solubility of 3He in 4Heso important for this method? In Sect. 2.3.2 we studied the equation for thecooling power of an evaporating cryogenic liquid

Q̇ = ṅ∆H = ṅL . (7.4)

If we make use of the latent heat L of evaporation as we did in the previouschapters on refrigerators, for example by pumping with a pump of constantvolume rate V̇ on a 3He or 4He bath with vapour pressure P , we obtain

Q̇ = V̇ P (T )L(T ) . (7.5)

Because the latent heat of evaporation changes only weakly with temperature(Fig. 2.6), the temperature dependence of the cooling power (2.13) is essen-tially given by

Q̇ ∝ P (T ) ∝ e−1/T . (7.6)For 3He–4He dilution refrigeration the corresponding quantities are the en-thalpy ∆H of mixing, which is given by the integral of the differences of thespecific heats of the two phases,

∆H ∝∫

∆C dT , (7.7)

and the concentration x of the dilute 3He phase, which is almost constantat T ≤ 0.1K, 6.6% 3He, see (7.3), in contrast to the vapour density in therefrigerator discussed earlier, where the number of atoms decreases exponen-tially with temperature. The high 3He particle density in the dilute phaseis essential for 3He–4He dilution refrigeration because it permits a high 3Hemolar flow rate. Because the specific heats of concentrated and diluted 3Heare proportional to T at low enough temperatures (Figs. 2.15 and 7.5), we end


Temperature, T [K]

Coo

ling

pow

er, Q

. [m

W]

250

200

150

3He/4He

3He

100

50

00 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

Fig. 7.3. Cooling power of a 3He evaporation cryostat and of a 3He–4He dilutionrefrigerator, assuming that the same pump with a helium gas circulation rate of5 l s−1 is used [7.9]

up with the following temperature dependence of the cooling power of thisdilution process:

Q̇ ∝ x∆H ∝ T 2 ; (7.8)this result is shown in Fig. 7.3.

This substantial advantage of the 3He–4He dilution process, that the tem-perature dependence of the cooling power is weaker than that of the evapora-tion process, was only realized after researchers detected the finite solubilityof3He in 4He even for T approaching absolute zero. Before this experimentaldiscovery it was believed that the liquid helium isotopes – like other two-component liquids – have to fully separate into the two pure liquids when thetemperature is low enough to fulfil the third law of thermodynamics, so thatthe entropy of mixing is zero for T = 0. Of course, the helium liquids have tofulfil this law as well, and they can do so even if they do not separate com-pletely for T → 0 because they are quantum liquids. For T = 0 the 3He–4Hemixtures are in their fully degenerate Fermi momentum ground state for the3He part (“one 3He particle per state”) and with 4He being superfluid, bothwith S = 0, whereas for a classical system, a finite solubility means S > 0.

7.1.2 3He–4He Mixtures as Fermi Liquids

The isotope 4He has a nuclear spin I = 0 and therefore in its liquid stateit obeys Bose statistics. Such a Bose liquid will undergo a so-called Bosecondensation in momentum space at low-enough temperature, and for liquid4He this corresponds to its transition to the superfluid state at 2.177 K. AtT < 0.5K liquid 4He is almost totally condensed into this quantum mechan-ical ground state; there are essentially no excitations (phonons, rotons) left.


Its viscosity, entropy and specific heat go to zero. In a helium mixture at thesetemperatures the component 4He acts as an “inert superfluid background”,which contributes to the volume of the liquid and to the effective mass of thedissolved isotope 3He (see later) but has negligible heat capacity, for example(Fig. 2.9).

The rare and lighter isotope 3He with its nuclear spin I = 1/2 is a Fermiparticle, and it has to obey Fermi statistics and the Pauli principle like theconduction electrons in a metal. However, unlike the Fermi temperature ofconduction electrons, which is of the order of 104 K, the Fermi temperatureof liquid 3He is of order 1 K only (because TF ∝ m−1). In analogy to theconduction electrons, the specific heat of liquid 3He behaves as

Fermi-degenerate : C3 = (π2/2)(T/TF)R at T TF (7.9)

orclassical : C3 = (5/2)R at T > TF and P = const. (7.10)

This means the behavior is classic-gas-like at T > 1K but Fermi-gas-like atT 0.1K.

Of course, if 3He is diluted by 4He in a liquid–helium mixture, it stillhas to obey Fermi statistics, but now it is diluted. Therefore, its Fermi tem-perature and its effective mass (which is a measure of its interactions withthe surroundings) are altered. Many experiments confirm that the propertiesof liquid 3He–4He mixtures can be described by the laws for an interactingFermi gas [7.5, 7.6, 7.12–7.18, 7.22–7.24]; because of the dilution by 4He, thisdescription is much better for dilute 3He–4He mixtures than for concentrated3He. That the liquid helium mixtures are not a dilute non-interacting gas istaken into account by replacing the bare 3He mass m3 in the equations bythe effective mass m∗. The effective mass is slightly dependent on 3He con-centration, with m∗/m3 = 2.34 for x → 0 and m∗/m3 = 2.45 for x = 6.6%at P = 0 [7.21, 7.25–7.28] (m∗/m3 = 2.78 for pure 3He at SVP [7.29], seeFig. 2.15), and more strongly dependent on pressure; these values are calcu-lated with (7.22) from the measured specific-heat data. In this description 3Heis treated as an interacting quasi-particle Fermi gas with a pressure equal tothe osmotic pressure of 3He in 4He (Sect. 7.1.5).

7.1.3 Finite Solubility of 3He in 4He

Let us consider whether a 3He atom would prefer to be in a vessel filled withliquid 3He or in a vessel filled with liquid 4He. Each atom that hits the phaseseparation line of a phase-separated 3He–4He mixture is asked this questionand has to decide whether to stay in the upper 3He phase or go into the lower4He rich phase. The 3He atom will go into the phase where it has the largerbinding energy.

In the following I shall discuss the situation for T = 0. An extension tofinite temperatures does not change the essentials of the results. A discussion


for finite temperatures can be found in the books of Lounasmaa [7.9] andBetts [7.10], for example.

3He in Pure 3He (x = 1)

The chemical potential1 of pure liquid 3He is given by the latent heat ofevaporation,

µ3,c = −L3 , (7.11)corresponding to the binding energy of 3He in liquid 3He. So L3/N0 is theenergy one has to supply to remove one 3He atom from liquid 3He into vacuum.

One 3He Atom in Liquid 4He (x � 0)

For the dilute phase, the binding energy of a 3He atom in liquid 4He (x → 0)is given by

µ3,d(0)N0

= −�3,d(0) . (7.12)

We have already discussed in Sect. 2.3 that due to the identical electronicstructure of the helium isotopes the van der Waals forces between them areidentical. But due to its smaller mass the 3He atom has a larger zero-pointmotion than the 4He atom. Therefore, in the liquid phase 4He atoms occupy asmaller volume than 3He atoms. The 3He atom will be closer to the 4He thanit would be to 3He atoms or, in other words, its binding – due to the smallerdistance or larger density – is stronger if it is in 4He than it would be in 3He.Because the 3He atom will be more strongly bound in 4He it will prefer tostay in liquid 4He. We have the inequalities

µ3,d(0) < µ3,c(0),

|�3,d(0)| > |L3| /N0,

−�3,d(0) < −L3/N0 . (7.13)

Of course, the finite solubility of 3He in 4He at T = 0 is itself an indicationthat a 3He atom is more strongly bound in 4He than in 3He. This strongerbinding is shown in Fig. 7.4.

Many 3He Atoms in Liquid 4He (x > 0)

When we put more and more 3He atoms into liquid 4He the situation willchange due to two effects. Firstly, there is an attractive interaction betweenthe 3He atoms in liquid 4He. This attraction arises from a magnetic interaction

1 From now on I shall use the subscripts “c” for the upper, concentrated 3He phaseand “d” for the lower, dilute 3He phase


due to the nuclear magnetic moments of 3He as in pure 3He, and, in addition,in the mixtures only from a density effect. Remember that the 3He, due to itslarger zero-point motion, needs more space than a 4He atom. Therefore, theliquid near to a 3He atom is more dilute than the liquid near to a 4He atom.This low-density region around a 3He atom is felt by another 3He atom in theliquid; it would like to be combined with the first 3He atom, because then itdoes not have to push so hard against the 4He atoms to make enough spacefor itself. Due to this attractive interaction between 3He atoms the bindingenergy of a 3He atom in 4He should increase with increasing 3He concentrationx (Fig. 7.4),

|�3,d(x)| > |�3,d(0)| ,

−�3,d(x) < −�3,d(0) . (7.14)

But now we have to remember that the 3He atoms have to obey the Pauliprinciple: If we put additional 3He atoms in the liquid they have to go intosuccessively higher energy states so that eventually all the energy states up tothe Fermi energy EF = kBTF are filled with two 3He atoms of opposite nuclearspin. Therefore, the binding energy of the 3He atoms has to decrease, due totheir Fermi character, if their number is increased. Eventually we arrive at thefollowing equation for the chemical potential of a 3He atom in dilute 3He–4Heliquid mixtures (at T = 0):

µ3,d(x)N0

= −�3,d(x) + kB TF(x) , (7.15)

where kB TF = (�2/2m∗)(3π2xN0/Vm)2/3 is the Fermi energy of a Fermi sys-tem with effective mass m∗ of the particles with the concentration x. We haveTF ∝ x2/3 because Vm and m∗ depend only weakly on the 3He concentra-tion x. The result (7.15) is illustrated in Fig. 7.4. If we continue to increasethe 3He concentration, the binding energy of a 3He atom in a liquid isotopicmixture will eventually reach the binding energy of a 3He atom in pure liquid3He. The chemical potentials of the two liquids become equal and we arriveat the limiting concentration of 3He in liquid 3He–4He mixtures. The limitingconcentration is 6.6% for the liquids under their saturated vapour pressure atT = 0, but depends on pressure (Fig. 7.2). Thus, we have for the equilibriumconcentration

−�3,d(6.6%) + kBTF(6.6%) = −L3N0

= −2.473[K] · kB. (7.16)

We could ask the 4He atoms, too, whether they would rather stay in a 4Heenvironment or whether they prefer to be in a 3He environment. Of course,they prefer to stay in 4He for the same reasons as the dilute 3He atoms: theyfeel a stronger binding when surrounded by 4He, and because they do nothave to obey the Pauli principle there is no reason to decrease their binding


m3

−e3, d (x )

−e3, d (x ) +

−e3, d (0)

−L3/N0

x3, d = 0.066x

kB TF (x )

0

Fig. 7.4. Chemical potential of a 3He atom in pure 3He (L3/N0 = 2.473[K] ·kB) andin 3He–4He mixtures as a function of the 3He concentration x. In the latter case thechemical potential is enhanced by kBTF(x) due to the Pauli principle (see text). Atthe limiting concentration x3,d = 6.6% the chemical potential of

3He in 4He reachesthe chemical potential of pure 3He

energy if we increase their concentration. As a result, the concentration of 4Hewill approach zero rapidly in the upper 3He-rich phase if the temperature islowered to zero, (7.2). The reason for the finite (zero) solubility of 3He (4He)in liquid 4He (3He) even at absolute zero is that a single 3He (4He) atom ismore strongly bound to liquid 4He than to liquid 3He.

7.1.4 Cooling Power of the Dilution Process

From measurements of specific heats (Fig. 7.5), we know that the enthalpy of3He in the dilute phase is larger than the enthalpy of 3He in the concentratedphase; we have the heat of mixing,

Q̇ = ṅ3[Hd(T ) − Hc(T )] . (7.17)

If we transfer 3He atoms at the molar flow rate ṅ3 from the concentratedphase into the dilute phase of a phase-separated mixture, cooling will resultaccording to the enthalpy difference of the two phases. Because the enthalpyis given by

H(T ) − H(0) =∫ T

0

C(T )dT (7.18)


C/R

T [

K−1

]

Temperature, T [mK]

1.3% 3He in 4He

30.1

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.81.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

4 7 10 20 30 40 70 100 200

5.0% 3He in 4He

Pure 3He

Fig. 7.5. Specific heat C/RT of 3He and of two dilute solutions of 3He in 4He atsaturated vapour pressure [7.5, 7.25]. In this figure C is the specific heat per totalnumber of helium moles (not: per 3He moles!). (For more recent data for pure 3He seeFig. 2.15; they are somewhat smaller than the shown data, giving C/RT = 2.78 K−1

for T < 10 mK [7.29])

(neglecting PV terms which do not matter here or in the following), we musthave

C3,d(T ) > C3,c(T ) (7.19)

for the molar heat capacities of 3He in the two phases to obtain cooling bythe dilution process.

In both phases, of course, the specific heat varies linearly with temperatureat low enough temperatures because both are Fermi liquids (Figs. 2.15 and7.5). But the prefactor is different for the two phases. Liquid 3He is a stronglyinteracting Fermi liquid and present theories do not allow calculation of thespecific heat reliably enough for our purpose. We therefore have to take thespecific heat from the accurate experimental data of Greywall [7.29], who, fortemperatures below about 40 mK and at saturated vapour pressure, gives

C3 = 2.7RT = 22T [J(mol K)−1] . (7.20)

C3/T is temperature independent at T < 40mK to within about 4%.2

Remember that this is a very large specific heat due to the small Fermi2 From [7.29], C3/RT = 2.78 at T < 10mK, which is reduced by about 4% at

T = 40 mK and by about 8% at T = 60mK; therefore, I will use 2.7 as a meanvalue.


temperature of 3He. For example, the molar heat capacity of copper is abouta factor of 3 ·104 smaller, due to its correspondingly larger Fermi temperature(Fig. 2.9; Sect. 3.1.2). We then have for the enthalpy of liquid 3He

H3(T ) = H3(0) + 11T 2[J mol−1] . (7.21)

If we need the specific heat and enthalpy at temperatures above about 50 mKwe cannot use such simple equations because C3/T �= constant2; we have tointegrate the experimental data for C3 to obtain H3(T ) [7.29].

To calculate the enthalpy of the mixtures we can, in principle, follow thesame procedure. But in our dilution refrigerator we have mixtures at variousconcentrations (Sect. 7.2), and the specific heat has only been measured at afew low concentrations of 3He [7.25–7.28]. Calculated thermodynamic data forliquid 3He–4He mixtures at x ≤ 8% and T < 250mK have been published in[7.30]. However, very little is known about mixtures at high 3He concentrationswhich are circulating in a dilution refrigerator (see later). Of course, mostimportant is the mixture in the chamber where the cooling occurs (see later)and there we have 6.6% 3He. Fortunately, in the mixtures where the 3He isdiluted by 4He we have a weakly interacting Fermi liquid, for which it is agood approximation to take the equations for a Fermi gas and replace the bare3He mass m3 by the effective mass m∗. This substitution reflects the influenceof the neighbouring 3He and 4He atoms with which the 3He interacts. We thenhave at T < TF/10 the following relation for the specific heat of the mixtureper mole of 3He:

C3,d = N0kBπ2

2T

TF= 0.745

m∗

m3

(Vmx

)2/3T , (7.22)

with the equation for the Fermi temperature

TF =�

2

2m∗kB

(3π2N0x

Vm

)2/3= 55.2

m3m∗

(x

Vm

)2/3[K] , (7.23a)

and for the molar volume of the mixtures

Vm = Vm,4(1 + 0.284x) , (7.23b)

where Vm,4 = 27.589 cm3 mol−1 is the molar volume of pure 4He [7.20].This means that the specific heat per 3He atom in the mixture increases

with decreasing concentration! For one mole of mixture of 3He concentrationx we have

C ′3,d = xC3,d ∝ x1/3T at (T < TF/10) , (7.24)where the weak concentration dependences of m∗ and Vm have been neglected.Equation (7.24) indicates that the specific heat C ′3,d of

3He–4He mixtures de-creases not proportional to the 3He concentration x but proportional to x1/3

only. The effective mass m∗ is weakly dependent on the 3He concentration,and for a mixture of 6.6% at saturated vapour pressure m∗ � 2.5m3. This then


gives for the Fermi temperature TF(6.6%) = 0.38K, and we find for the spe-cific heat of a 6.6% mixture below 40 mK [7.25–7.28]

C3,d(6.6%) � 106T [J(mol3He K)−1] . (7.25)

When the two phases are in thermodynamic equilibrium we must have for thechemical potentials

µ3,c(xc, T ) = µ3,d(xd, T ) . (7.26)

Withµ = H − TS , (7.27)

we findH3 − TS3 = H3,d − TS3,d . (7.28)

This then gives with (7.20, 7.21, 7.25)

H3,d(T ) = H3(0) + 11T 2 + T∫ T

0

(C3,dT ′

− C3T ′

)

dT ′

= H3(0) + 95T 2 [J (mol3He)−1] . (7.29)

Combining this with (7.21) for the enthalpy of pure 3He we find for thecooling power occurring at the phase separation line when n3 moles of 3Heper unit time are transferred from the concentrated to the dilute phase

Q̇ (T ) = ṅ3[H3,d(T ) − H3(T )] = 84ṅ3T 2 [W] . (7.30)

With a value of ṅ3 = 100 µmol s−1 and T = 10(30)mK, we find

Q̇ � 1(10) µW . (7.31)

For the above calculation I have used the accurate specific heat data ofGreywall [7.29] for the properties of pure 3He. The older data on the spe-cific heat of mixtures [7.25–7.28] are much less reliable. Therefore, the figuresgiven earlier may have to be revised slightly when more accurate specific heatdata for the mixtures become available.

7.1.5 Osmotic Pressure

Before describing the design of a 3He–4He dilution refrigerator we have todiscuss one more property of liquid–helium mixtures: their osmotic pres-sure [7.12, 7.31, 7.32]. As we shall see later, we have isotopic helium mixturesat varying concentrations and temperatures in our refrigerator. In such asituation an osmotic pressure develops in a two-fluid mixture.

We can approximately calculate the osmotic pressure π in 3He–4He mix-tures by considering them as ideal solutions (which is valid for liquid–heliummixtures in the classical regime of T > TF, e.g., for T � 0.15K, x � 0.03).In this situation we have van’t Hoff’s law


Mixture

Superleak

Mixture

Mixingchamber

Still

4He

4He

Fig. 7.6. Schematic set-up for a Gedanken experiment to measure the osmoticpressure of 3He–4He solutions in the still and in the mixing chamber of a 3He–4Hedilution refrigerator

πVm,4 � xRT , (7.32)

where Vm,4 is the molar volume of 4He. In a dilution refrigerator a tube con-nects the mixture in the mixing chamber (where we have the phase separationline) with the mixture in the still (where 3He is evaporated), see Figs. 7.8 and7.9. Let us assume that both the mixture in the mixing chamber and themixture in the still are connected via a superleak to separate second vessels,which in each case contain pure 4He (Fig. 7.6). A semipermeable membraneor “superleak” for the helium mixtures can easily be made from tightly com-pressed powders. Such a superleak with very small pores (≤ 1, 000 Å) is per-meable for superfluid 4He but not for the Fermi liquid 3He with its rather largeviscosity (Fig. 2.19). For that reason, an osmotic pressure develops across thesuperleaks, so that the pressures of the liquids are higher on the mixture sidethan on the pure 4He side. The osmotic pressure results from the “desire” ofthe liquids to exist at equal concentrations on either side of the semipermeablewall. The difference of the osmotic pressures due to the different concentra-tions and temperatures in the mixing chamber and the still is given by

πmc − πst �(xmcTmc − xstTst)R

Vm,4, (7.33)

where st stands for still and mc for mixing chamber. If no 3He is pumped fromthe still, then there is no difference in osmotic pressure between the still andthe mixing chamber. Assuming the mixing chamber with 6.6% mixture to beat 10 mK and the still to be at 0.7 K, we then have

xst = xmcTmcTst

≈ 0.1% . (7.34)

If we pump 3He from the still, the concentration of 3He will decrease there,and an osmotic pressure difference πmc − πst will develop that will drive 3He


Temperature,T [K]

Osm

otic

pre

ssur

e,π

[mba

r]

x = 1.44%

x = 4.06%

x = 6.28%

00

10

20

30

40

50

0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25

Fig. 7.7. Osmotic pressures of some dilute 3He–4He mixtures at a pressure of0.26 bar (from [7.11] who used the data of [7.31])

from the mixing chamber into the still and therefore “sucks” 3He from theconcentrated into the dilute phase in the mixing chamber. The maximumosmotic pressure will be obtained when the concentration of 3He in the stilltends to zero. We then have (Fig. 7.7)

∆πmax =xmcRTmc

Vm,4� 20mbar , (7.35)

for T � 0.1K, below which π becomes T -independent for x = 6.6% (seelater and Fig. 7.7). This pressure corresponds to the hydrostatic pressure ofabout 1 m of liquid helium. In other words, the osmotic pressure will be largeenough to drive the 3He from the mixing chamber into the still even if theyare separated by a vertical distance of about 1 m.

A more correct treatment takes into account that, at the temperature ofthe mixing chamber, the 3He in both phases is in the Fermi degenerate stateand for T < TF/3 we have to use

πVm.4 = 0.4xRTF (7.36)

instead of (7.32). This results in a temperature-independent osmotic pressureπ ∝ x5/3 at T ≤ 10mK; its value is about 20 mbar for a 6.6% mixture(Fig. 7.7).

In the earlier discussion fountain pressure effects (∆P = ρS∆T ) whichresult from the superfluidity of 4He [7.15–7.18], have been neglected becausethey are small in comparison to the osmotic pressure.

7.2 Realization of a 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator 163

7.2 Realization of a 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator

The realization of a dilution refrigerator can be understood if we comparethe cooling process with cooling which occurs when liquid is evaporated; thiscomparison is shown in Fig. 7.8. But we have to keep in mind that the physicsof these cooling processes is quite different. In evaporation we rely on theclassical heat of evaporation for cooling. In dilution refrigeration we rely onthe enthalpy of mixing of two quantum liquids. Here the cooling results fromquantum mechanical effects: the different zero-point motions of the two heliumisotopes and the different statistics which we have to apply to understand theirproperties at low temperatures.

In the closed 3He circulation cycle of a dilution refrigerator shown inFig. 7.8, the cooling occurs when 3He atoms are transferred from the 3He-rich to the 3He-poor side. The 3He is then driven up along the liquid mixturecolumn by a pressure caused by the osmotic pressure difference. It eventuallyreaches the “3He pump”, which in this scheme is our still. From the still wecan pump and evaporate the 3He, if it is operated at an appropriately hightemperature, e.g., 0.7 K, where the vapour pressure of 3He is much largerthan the vapour pressure of 4He (Fig. 2.7). For example, at T = 0.7 (0.6)Kfor an x = 1.0% (1.2%) mixture, we have P3 + P4 = 88 (46) µbar andP3/(P3 + P4) = 97% (99%), which are rather convenient conditions. Thevapour pressure of 3He–4He mixtures at various T and x can be foundin [7.10, 7.33]. The still operates like a destillation chamber, evaporating al-most pure 3He. As a result, 3He will flow from the dilute phase in the mixingchamber to the still driven by the osmotic pressure difference. This flow ofcold 3He from the mixing chamber to the evaporation chamber is utilized toprecool the incoming 3He in a heat exchanging process. The 3He concentra-tion in the dilute phase of the mixing chamber will stay constant because 3He

3He- 4He

3He

Vapour

Gaspump

Evaporation Dilution

3Hepump

Liquid

1K 1K

Fig. 7.8. Gedanken experiment for comparison of a helium evaporation refrigeratorand a 3He–4He dilution refrigerator


< 1%

> 90%

100%

6.6%

Topump

Vapour

Almost pure 3He

Heater

Still 0.7 K

Dilutephase

Dilutephase

Phaseboundary

Concentratedphase

Secondaryflowimpedance

Still heatexchanger

Main flowimpedance

From 1.5 KCondenser

Heatexchangers

Heatflow

Dilute phase

Mixing 0.01Kchamber

Fig. 7.9. Schematic 3He–4He dilution refrigerator. This part will sit in a vacuumchamber that is immersed in a 4He bath at 4.2 K. The incoming 3He gas is condensedon a continuously operating 4He pot at 1.5 K (Sect. 5.2.4)

atoms are continuously crossing the phase separation line from the concen-trated to the dilute phase, producing cooling due to the latent heat of mixing.Of course, the circuit cannot operate in the way shown, because we wouldhave the heavier mixture on top of the lighter liquid 3He. In reality we haveto design the refrigerator slightly differently.

The main components of a working dilution refrigerator and a flow dia-gram for its liquids are depicted in Fig. 7.9. The 3He gas coming from the exitof a pump at room temperature will first be precooled by a liquid 4He bath at4.2 K. It will then be condensed in a second 4He bath at about 1.5 K, whichwe can obtain by using a continuously operating 4He refrigerator (Sect. 5.2.4).The heat transfer surface area may have to be increased by using a sinteredmetal (Sect. 13.6) to absorb the heat of condensation of 3He. This 4He evapora-tor is also used as a heat sink at which all tubes and leads going to colder partsof the refrigerator should be thermally anchored. Below the 4He refrigeratorwe need the so-called main flow impedance (Z ≈ 1012 cm−3, see Sect. 5.2.4 forits design [7.34]), to establish sufficient pressure (30–200mbar) for the incom-ing 3He so that it will indeed condense at 1.5 K. The now liquid 3He will flow

7.3 Properties of the Main Components of a 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator 165

through a heat exchanger which is in thermal contact with (or even inside) thestill at a temperature of about 0.7 K. Below the still we have a secondary flowimpedance (Z ≈ 1011 cm−3) to prevent reevaporation of 3He. After leavingthis secondary flow impedance the liquid 3He will flow through one or severalheat exchangers (Sect. 7.3.3) to precool it to a low enough temperature beforeit enters the upper, concentrated phase in the mixing chamber.

A wider tube for the dilute phase in the refrigerator leaves the lower,dilute mixture phase of the mixing chamber, and then goes through the heatexchanger to precool the incoming 3He. It enters the dilute liquid phase in thestill, where we have a liquid 3He concentration of less than 1%. The vapourabove the dilute liquid phase in the still has a concentration of typically 90%3He due to the high vapour pressure of 3He at the temperature of the still.If we then pump on the still and resupply the condensation line continuouslywith 3He gas we have a closed 3He circuit in which 3He is forced down thecondensation line. Then, again after liquefaction and precooling, it enters theconcentrated phase in the mixing chamber. It will cross the phase boundary,giving rise to cooling, and will eventually leave the mixing chamber and bepushed up into the still, where it will evaporate. Circulation of the 3He ismaintained by a pumping system at room temperature.

Each component of a dilution refrigerator has to be carefully designedto achieve the required properties, but the quality of its heat exchangers isparticularly critical, as will become obvious in Sect. 7.3.

7.3 Properties of the Main Componentsof a 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerator

7.3.1 Mixing Chamber

We will now perform an enthalpy balance for the mixing chamber where cool-ing is produced by the transfer of ṅ3 3He moles from the concentrated (pure3He) to the dilute phase of x = 6.6%. The cooling power will be used toprecool the warmer liquid 3He coming from the heat exchangers as well asto cool an experiment or to balance other external heat inflow. This en-thalpy balance can be easily established by considering Fig. 7.10. We thenhave

ṅ3[H3,d(Tmc) − H3(Tmc)] = ṅ3[H3(Tex) − H3(Tmc)] + Q̇ , (7.37)

resulting in a cooling power, using (7.21 and 7.29), of

Q̇ = ṅ3(95T 2mc − 11T 2ex) [W] . (7.38)

If the liquid leaving the last heat exchanger already has a temperature equalto the temperature of the mixing chamber or if we operate the refrigerator in


Tex

Tmc

Conc. Mixingchamber

Heatexchanger

Dilute

Q

Fig. 7.10. Schematic for calculating the enthalpy balance in the mixing chamberof a 3He–4He dilution refrigerator (see text)

a discontinuous mode, which means we do not supply any more incoming 3Hewhich has to be precooled, then we obtain the maximum cooling power

Q̇max = 84ṅ3T 2mc , (7.39)

or the minimum achievable temperature, but see (7.48, 7.51, 7.52, 7.54),

Tmc,min =

(Q̇

84ṅ3

)1/2

. (7.40)

On the other hand, we can calculate the maximum temperature allowed forthe liquid leaving the last heat exchanger and entering the mixing chamber,which we obtain for the case that there is no cooling power from the dilutionrefrigerator available, Q̇ = 0, resulting in

Tex ≤ 3Tmc . (7.41)

This gives a rather severe requirement for the efficiency of the heat exchangers,telling us that the liquid has to leave the last heat exchanger at a temperaturewhich is at the most a factor of three higher than the temperature whichwe want to obtain in the mixing chamber. This is a very important resultand immediately demonstrates the importance of the efficiency of the heatexchangers in a dilution refrigerator.

Assume that we are circulating 100 µmol 3He s−1 and we would like tohave a cooling power of 1 µW at the mixing chamber. We then obtain

Tmc = 12 (15)mK


forTex = 18 (30)mK ,

demonstrating again the importance of adequately precooling the incoming3He in the heat exchangers, particularly the last one (Sect. 7.3.3).

To provide adequate thermal contact from the liquid in the mixing chamberto the walls of it and to an attached experiment, the mixing chamber has tocontain a heat exchanger made from sintered metal powder (see Sect. 13.6)with surface areas between several m2 and several 100 m2 (see below).

Let me emphasize the important result Q̇ ∝ ṅ3, with ṅ3 independent ofT below about 0.1 K. This demonstrates the advantage of dilution refrigera-tion in comparison to evaporation refrigeration, where we have ṅ ∝ Pvap ∝exp(−1/kBT ) (Fig. 7.3).

7.3.2 Still

One of the main requirements on the design of the still is that the ratio of 3Heto 4He in the vapour phase of the still should be as large as possible. In Sect. 7.2we argued that a value of 0.6–0.7 K is reasonable for the temperature of thestill. In this range the 3He vapour pressure is still large enough to keep thecirculation rate reasonably large with a typical pump, and the concentrationof 4He in the vapour phase is only some percentage.

We now perform an enthalpy balance for the still, where 3He will arrivewith the temperature of the condenser (Fig. 7.9) and will leave with the tem-perature of the still. Cooling is produced by the heat of evaporation of 3He atthe temperature of the still,

ṅ3 L3(Tst, xd,st) = ṅ3[H3(Tcond) − H3(Tst)] + Q̇st . (7.42)

If we again assume a circulation rate of 100 µmol s−1, a condenser temperatureof 1.3 K and a still temperature of 0.7 K, we find that the required rate ofheat supply Q̇st to the still is several milliwatts; more generally, a good ruleis Q̇st[W] ≈ 40ṅ3 [mol]. This heat will be partly supplied by a conventionalheater. In addition, we can thermally anchor to the still a radiation shieldsurrounding all the lower, colder parts of the dilution refrigerator to reducethe heat of radiation; this is done in most modern dilution refrigerators. Ofcourse other parts, like electrical leads and capillaries, could and should beheat sunk at the still as well.

Unfortunately, in many dilution refrigerators the circulating gas contains10–20% 4He if no special precautions are taken; it is then not pure 3He whichcirculates but a mixture. This results in a deterioration of the 3He circulationrate ṅ3 because it loads the pumping system, which has a constant totalvolume flow rate. It puts also a heat load on the heat exchangers becausethe specific heat of 3He in mixtures is substantially higher than for pure 3He(Fig. 7.5). In addition, separation of 3He from 4He will result in heating effects,so that the temperature of the heat exchangers will increase. An increased


3Hec

3Hec

Tubular heat exchanger

Main heater

Copper baffle

Stainless steel support

Film burning heaterCopper piece

3Hed

Fig. 7.11. A film-flow inhibiting still of a 3He–4He refrigerator [7.2]

4He circulation rate has a negligible effect on the behavior of the liquids inthe mixing chamber because at these low temperatures dx/dT is essentiallyindependent of T (Fig. 7.1). Of course, the mixing-chamber temperature andthe cooling power of our refrigerator will deteriorate. To keep the amount of4He pumped from the still reasonably low, one has to suppress, in particular,the superfluid 4He film flow (Sect. 2.3.5) up the still pumping tube to a pointwarm enough to evaporate there. The film flow can result from a combinationof siphoning (typically 0.25 µmol s−1 per mm of inner circumference of thepumping tube) and of evaporation at the upper, warmer parts of the tube.The introduction of a small orifice (≤ 1mm diameter) with sharp edges inthe pumping tube or, for more powerful refrigerators, a so-called 4He filmburner [7.2–7.11, 7.35, 7.36] in the tube can keep the film flow and hence theamount of 4He in the circulating gas low enough (Fig. 7.11).

The still should be rather large so that the liquid in it can act as a buffervolume to arrange the liquid level over a wide range. It should contain a levelgauge, for example a capacitor of two concentric tubes or two parallel plates,to measure and adjust the liquid level adequately [7.3], and, of course, heaterand thermometer. In a good refrigerator, the incoming 3He is efficiently cooledby a heat exchanger (see below) in the still.

7.3.3 Heat Exchangers

The purpose of the heat exchangers [7.2–7.11, 7.36–7.40] is to bring the tem-perature of the incoming 3He as close to the temperature of the mixingchamber as possible by using the cold mixture leaving the mixing cham-ber to precool the incoming warmer 3He. For this purpose, in general, oneneeds several heat exchangers between the still and the mixing chamber toachieve the best performance of the refrigerator. An enthalpy balance forthe heat exchangers similar to the one described earlier for the still and for the


mixing chamber is much more involved. Firstly, because we need to know theenthalpy of the concentrated phase (assuming that it is pure 3He) as a func-tion of temperature and of the dilute phase as a function of temperatureand concentration. Secondly, a heat exchanger is a very complicated systemwith temperature gradients in the viscous fluid streams as well as in the heatexchanger body, both in the direction of the flow and perpendicular to it.We can take the available data on the specific heat of 3He (Fig. 2.15) and onhelium mixtures (Fig. 7.5) to construct an enthalpy diagram [7.8, 7.9]. But,of course, the values for the mixtures are only an approximation, becausethe concentration changes along the heat exchangers from a value of 6.6%in the mixing chamber to a value of about 1% in the still.

For the heat exchangers we assume ideal behavior, in the sense that theexit temperatures of both fluid streams are the same, and neglect viscousheating and axial conduction effects. The enthalpy balance for the Nth heatexchanger is then given by

Q̇N + ṅ3[H3(TN−1) − H3(TN )] = ṅ3[H3,d(TN ) − H3,d(TN+1)] . (7.43)

Fortunately, H3,d > H3, so that the incoming 3He can, in principle, alwaysbe precooled effectively by the outgoing mixture if the exchangers are designedproperly. To compute the temperatures of the various heat exchangers withthe mentioned assumptions, one first starts by setting TN+1 equal to Tmc, thetemperature of the mixing chamber. Then the temperature of the Nth heatexchanger is calculated and so on, until one arrives eventually at a temperatureequal to the temperature of the still. This procedure determines the number ofheat exchangers for a certain desired temperature of the mixing chamber. Theresult of such a procedure with the additional assumption that the externalheat flow to mixing chamber and to each heat exchanger is negligible canbe found in [7.8, 7.9]. It shows that three ideal heat exchangers are neededto arrive at Tmc = 10 mK. In reality, due to the non-ideality of the heatexchangers, the finite conductivities and viscosities of the flowing liquids, andthe heat load from some circulating 4He, one or two additional heat exchangersare needed.

The requirements on the heat exchangers can be quite severe for a powerfuldilution refrigerator [7.2–7.4]. Besides coming close to the ideal behavior men-tioned they should have small volumes, so that the liquids attain temperatureequilibrium quickly, small impedances, so that the viscous heating due to flowis small, and there should be a small thermal resistance between the streams toobtain good temperature equilibrium between them. This last requirement isof particular importance and leads us back to the thermal boundary resistancebetween different materials already discussed in Sect. 4.3.2.

The thermal boundary resistance between helium and other materials isgiven by

RK =a

AT−3 [K W−1] , (7.44)


for T > 20 mK, where A [m2] is the contact area. Typical values for the con-stant a obtained from experiments are ac ∼= 0.05 (3He) and ad ∼= 0.02 (heliummixtures), see Sect. 4.3.2; but, of course, they depend on the properties of thebody in contact with liquid helium. In a heat exchanger of a dilution refrig-erator the two resistances are in series, and because ac > ad, we should haveAc > Ad.

As an example, for Q̇ = 0.1 mW, A = 0.1 m2 and T = 100 mK, we wouldhave ∆T ≈ 50 mK for 3He. Or, at lower T , with Q̇ = 0.01 mW, A = 10m2and T = 20 mK, we would have ∆T ≈ 6 mK. Both temperature steps areunacceptably large, so that we either have to decrease the heat flow Q̇ orincrease the surface area A. Usually one requires many square meters of surfacearea to overcome the Kapitza boundary resistance in the heat exchangers forT < 0.1 K. Because the thermal boundary resistance increases with decreasingtemperature, it is particularly serious in the mixing chamber, where one needssurface areas between several 10 m2 and several 100 m2, depending on ṅ3 andTmc [7.2–7.11,7.36–7.40].

Heat exchangers are the most important and most critical part of a dilutionrefrigerator; they determine its minimum temperature, for example. For thedesign of heat exchangers we have to take into account the problems andconsiderations discussed earlier. In particular, we have to take into accountthat the thermal boundary resistance as well as the liquids’ viscosities andconductivities increase with decreasing temperature. When designing dilutionrefrigerators, former practical experience with a successful refrigerator [7.2–7.11, 7.36–7.41] is sometimes more important than a recalculation of variousparameters.

For a rather simple dilution refrigerator with a minimum temperatureof about 30 mK, one continuous counterflow tube-in-tube heat exchangerconsisting of two concentric capillaries (with diameters of order 0.5 and1 mm, and with 0.1 or 0.2 mm wall thickness) several meters long is suffi-cient [7.2–7.11, 7.36–7.41]. These concentric capillaries should be of low ther-mal conductivity (CuNi, stainless steel or brass) and are usually coiled into aspiral so they do not take up too much space. In such a heat exchanger thetemperatures change continuously along the exchanger. Heat is transferredacross the body of the wall, and conduction along the capillary and alongthe liquid streams should be negligible. The dilute phase moves in the spacebetween the tubes and the concentrated liquid moves in the inner tube. Ina more elaborate design, the inner capillary of up to 3 mm diameter is notstraight but spiralled, to increase the surface area, and then put into theouter, somewhat larger capillary (Fig. 7.12) [7.2–7.4, 7.36, 7.38, 7.41]. In spiteof their simple design and small inner volumes, continuous heat exchangerscan be quite effective. If one uses the appropriate dimensions, a refrigeratorwith a well-designed continuous heat exchanger can reach minimum temper-atures of 15–20 mK. The warmer end of a continuous heat exchanger can alsobe designed as a secondary flow impedance by reducing its diameter or byinserting a wire into it to prevent re-evaporation of the 3He.


(2 m), Brass2.0/1.4 mm 4.0/3.5 mm

(1 m)

Dilutephase

0.5/0.3 mm (1m), CuNi

Concentratedphase

Fig. 7.12. Schematic of a concentric heat exchanger. The design used in [7.36] hadfor the dilute phase: Z ≈ 107 cm−3, Abrass = 126 cm2, ACuNi = 16 cm2, Vliq = 6 cm3;and for the concentrated phase: Zbrass ≈ 5 × 108 cm−3, ZCuNi ≈ 8 × 109 cm−3,Abrass = 88 cm

2, ACuNi = 9 cm2, Vliq,brass = 2 cm

3, Vliq,CuNi ≈ 0.07 cm3. For concen-tric heat exchangers of different designs and dimensions see [7.2–7.4, 7.38,7.41]

For a more powerful dilution refrigerator with a larger cooling power andlower minimum temperature we need more than one heat exchanger. Theseare, first a continuous heat exchanger below the still, as described earlier,and then several step heat exchangers in series [7.2–7.11,7.36–7.41]. At lowertemperatures the earlier-discussed continuous heat exchanger can no longer beused because it does not provide enough surface area to defeat the increasingthermal boundary resistance. This can only be provided by step exchangers,which in their simplest design can be machined from Cu blocks into which twoholes have been drilled (Fig. 7.13). To reduce the thermal boundary resistance,each channel has to be filled with pressed and/or sintered metal powder toprovide the required surface area for adequate heat exchange (Sect. 13.6).Other design criteria are a low flow impedance (to reduce Q̇visc, see later)and a small size (to economize on the amount of 3He needed and to give ashort thermal time constant). For example, the flow channel diameter in theheat exchangers has to be increased with decreasing T . To produce a largesurface area but small flow impedance, the metal powder can first be sintered,then broken up, and the sinter blocks are then sintered together to leave largeopen flow areas. Another possibility is to drill an open flow channel throughthe sintered powder (Fig. 7.13). This large flow area is important not onlyin order to keep viscous heating low but also to take advantage of the highthermal conductivity of 3He (Sect. 2.3.6, which is then always in good thermalcontact with the almost stationary liquid in the sinter. Table 7.1 lists thedimensions used for the six-step heat exchangers of a rather successful dilutionrefrigerator with a minimum temperature of about 3 mK inside the mixing


Fig. 7.13. Schematic of a step heat exchanger made from Cu with compressed andsintered metal powder in the two channels into which flow channels for the counter-flowing liquids have been drilled. The dilution refrigerator of [7.36] with Tmin = 3mKand a maximum value of ṅ3 = 700 µ mol s−1 used six such step exchangers with theparameters given in Table 7.1

Table 7.1. Data for the Cu-sinter heat exchangers used in the 3He–4He dilutionrefrigerator of [7.36], which has reached Tmin = 3 mK. For the symbols, see Fig. 7.13.(The filling factor f is for sinter made from powder of grain size d). For data onAg-sinter heat exchangers see [7.2–7.4, 7.38,7.41]

TN [mK] 83 48 32 19 13 10l [mm] 62 94 94 94 94 88D1 [mm] 8 13 13 18 18 22D2 [mm] 2.7 2.7 3.2 4.8 6.5 8.0D3 [mm] 6 10 10 14 14 17D4 [mm] 2.0 2.0 2.4 3.2 4.8 6.5Sintered Cu Cu Cu 0.2 Cu 0.4 Cu 0.4 CuMetal powder 0.8 Ag 0.6 Ag 0.6 Agd [µm] 100 50 30 44 Cu 44 Cu 44 Cu

2.5 Ag 0.07 Ag 0.07 Agf 0.55 0.65 0.65 0.75 0.70 0.70Ac [m

2] 0.05 0.27 0.45 6.5 100 135Ad [m

2] 0.09 0.46 0.76 10.6 164 230Vc [cm

3] 1.6 7.1 7.0 13.7 12.8 17.1Vd [cm

3] 2.8 11.9 11.7 22.2 20.8 29.0

chamber at ṅ3 = 300 µ mol s−1. The simple step exchangers were filled withcompressed Cu and Ag powders [7.36]. The art of designing heat exchangers[7.8] has been greatly advanced by Frossati [7.2, 7.3], see also [7.4, 7.38]. Hiswelded, rectangular heat exchangers filled with submicrometer sintered silver


Cu-Ni foil

Cu-Ni foil

SinteredsilverArgon weld

Dilute 3He

Concentrated 3He

Silver plated

Fig. 7.14. Schematic of a semicontinuous heat exchanger developed by Frossatiet al. [7.2,7.3] of welded Cu–Ni foil filled with submicrometer silver powder sinteredto a silver plated Cu–Ni foil

powder (Fig. 7.14) are also taken advantage of in powerful commercial dilutionrefrigerators. In [7.2, 7.3, 7.11] the two important steps in designing the stepheat exchangers are discussed:

(a) Determination of the required total surface area for the heat exchangersfor a given minimum temperature at optimum flow rate and at a givenheat leak.

(b) Optimization of the size of the flow channels for a given exchanger lengthto minimize the heat generated by viscosity and axial heat flow.

Calculations of the required surface areas in the heat exchangers canbe found in [7.2–7.11, 7.36, 7.37, 7.40]. Assuming for the Kapitza resistanceRK ∝ T−i (Sect. 4.3.2) we have for the heat flow Q̇ between the two streamsin an exchanger with contact area A

Q̇ = λi+1A(T i+11 − T i+12 ) . (7.45)

Frossati [7.2, 7.11] showed evidence for the following values:

λ4 = 63 W m−2 K−4,λ3 = 6.7 × 10−3 W m−2 K−3, (7.46)λ2 = 2.1 × 10−4 W m−2 K−2 .

Typical surface areas required in the last heat exchanger for the followingmixing chamber temperatures are then

Tmc [mK] 4 8 15 25

A [m2] 71 34 18 10

assuming i = 2, ṅ3 = 2 × 10−4 mol s−1, Q̇ = 30nW [7.11].As mentioned, the large surface areas necessary in the heat exchangers

as well as in the mixing chamber are provided by sintered metal powders.


Various recipes for their fabrication and characterization have been describedin the literature (Sect. 13.6).

Another point to be considered is the low thermal conductivity of the sin-tered metal powders themselves, which can be orders of magnitude lower thanthe bulk metal conductivity (Table 13.1). Obviously, a mathematical analysisof the performance of real heat exchangers is very much involved. One hasto solve coupled differential equations for the concentrated and diluted he-lium streams, where properties like the thermal conductivity of the liquids,of the exchanger body and of the sinter, thermal boundary resistances be-tween them, viscous heating and osmotic pressure are taken into account tocalculate the temperature profile in the exchanger. Figure 7.15 illustrates asan example the effect of the finite thermal conductivities of the liquids in theheat exchangers on the temperatures of the liquids inside the exchanger and

k1

k1

Tem

pera

ture

, T [m

K]

Position [cm]

00

10

20

30

40

50

60

0.5 1.0

Dilute stream

Sintered heat exchangerTube Tube

10 mK

60 mK

41 mK

26 mK

17 mK

28 mK

Concentrated stream

= 20 mKTb

= 27 mK

= 0 = 0

Tb

Fig. 7.15. Calculated liquid and body temperature profiles within and near a dis-crete heat exchanger of length 1 cm for a mixing chamber temperature of 10 mK.One set of curves is calculated neglecting the finite thermal conductivity of theliquids (κ1 = 0), and the other set is calculated using the correct liquid thermalconductivities (κ1 �= 0). The liquid volume on the concentrated side is 0.85 cm3,and the dilute liquid volume is 2.1 times larger. The surface area per unit liquidvolume is 400 cm−1. The 3He flow rate is 20 µmol s−1. External heat flow to the heatexchanger and to the mixing chamber is neglected. Obviously a design where theinfluence of the liquid conductivity is minimized is more favorable [7.8, 7.9]


of the body of the heat exchanger itself. If the finite thermal conductivity ofthe liquids is taken into account, most of the temperature changes in the twoliquid streams occur in the inlet tubes just before the heat exchanger. Eventhe inclusion of just this one property results in substantial changes in thetemperature profiles [7.8, 7.9, 7.39,7.40].

The selection of the diameters for the tubes connecting the mixing cham-ber, heat exchangers and the still is important. Here we have to make acompromise for the following reasons. We would like to have a large diam-eter for the tubes to ensure that the circulation of the rather viscous 3He islarge and viscous heating effects are negligible. Yet the diameter of the tubesmust be small enough for an osmotic pressure to develop between the mixingchamber and the still, and we also want to have the diameter small so thatthe refrigerator will not suffer from hydrodynamic instabilities and convec-tion. We have to bear in mind that the 3He concentration decreases towardthe still and therefore the density of the mixture in the dilute phase increaseswhen going from the mixing chamber to the still. Typical diameters of theconnecting tubes are about 1 mm just below the still up to 10 mm before themixing chamber of a powerful dilution refrigerator [7.2–7.4, 7.36–7.38].

Viscous heating is given by

Q̇visc = V̇ ∆P = ZηV 2ṅ2 (7.47)

for a laminar flow with Z = 128l/πd4 in case of a circular cross-section tubeof length l and diameter d [cm] and Z = 12l/ab3 in case of a square withwidth b and height a; Q̇visc may eventually limit the performance of a dilu-tion refrigerator. Viscous heating is more serious in the dilute than in theconcentrated stream, and it increases with decreasing temperature (η ∝ T−2for a degenerate Fermi liquid, Fig. 2.19). To keep viscous heating of the twostreams in a heat exchanger equal, one needs Dd ≈ 1.7Dc [7.9].

Wheatley et al. [7.5–7.7] have given arguments that the practical lowerlimit for Tmc is due to viscous heating and conduction of heat in the flowingdilute phase at the outlet of the mixing chamber; they arrived at

Tmc, min = 4d−1/3 [mK] , (7.48)

where d is the diameter of the exit tube measured in millimeters. Frossati[7.2, 7.3] has discussed these problems by considering viscous heating andheat conduction contributions for the concentrated and dilute streams. WithQ̇visc ∝ d−4 (assuming Poiseuille flow) and Q̇cond ∝ d2, the sum of the two is

Q̇visc + Q̇cond = ad−4 + bd2 , (7.49)

yielding an optimal channel size

dopt = (2a/b)1/6 . (7.50)

He gave the resulting dopt for the various heat exchangers of a powerfuldilution refrigerator which has reached Tmc � 2 mK. Since viscosity and


thermal conductivity in both Fermi liquid streams increase with decreasingtemperature, their limiting influence becomes more and more severe as lowertemperatures are required.

Let me come back to the influence of the thermal boundary resistance.Taking the temperature step due to the Kapitza resistance RK between thehelium liquid and the solid with a surface area A into account [7.2, 7.42]modifies (7.40) for the minimum temperature of a dilution refrigerator to

T 2mc =0.011Q̇

ṅ3+

5.2RKṅ3A

if RK ∝ T−3 , (7.51)

and

T 2mc =0.011Q̇

ṅ3+ (27RKṅ3T 2)2 if RK ∝ T−2 . (7.52)

Taking the value ARKT 2 = 28m2 K3 W−1 (Sect. 4.3.2) for (7.52) we arriveat the optimum circulation rate

ṅ3, opt � 3 × 10−3Q̇1/3A2/3 [mol s−1] , (7.53)

and the minimum temperature

Tmc, min = 4.5

(Q̇

A

)1/3

[mK] . (7.54)

The equations for the performance of a dilution refrigerator have beensolved rigorously [7.43]. The results replace (7.51–7.54) and allow to determinethe normalized cooling power Q̇/ṅ as a function of T in good agreementwith experimental data over the whole temperature range, in particular whenQ̇ does not follow a T 2 dependence any more (Fig. 7.19). These equationsalso allow to calculate the Kapitza resistance of the heat exchanger as wellas the internal heat leak for any circulation rate. One can then perform adiagnosis of the refrigerator and decide whether its performance is limited bythe effective surface area of the heat exchanger, the intrinsic heat leak to themixing chamber, or by the Kapitza resistance of the mixing chamber.

7.4 Examples of 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerators

Figures 7.16 and 7.17 are schematic diagrams of some rather successful “home-made” dilution refrigerators. Figure 7.18 shows the low-temperature part of acommercial dilution refrigerator with a minimum temperature of about 4 mK.The cooling power as a function of temperature of a dilution refrigeratorwith a dilution unit very similar to the one shown in Fig. 7.18 is depicted inFig. 7.19. The most powerful 3He–4He dilution refrigerators have been built byFrossati et al. in Leiden [7.2,7.3] (Fig. 10.22) and by Pickett et al. in Lancaster

7.4 Examples of 3He–4He Dilution Refrigerators 177

Ts

TmcMixingchamber

Heater

Still

4.2 K

1K

Heated diaphragm

Vacuumjacket

Heliumdewar

exchangegas pump

Leakdetector

Pumpingsystem

Pressuregauge

Mixturestoragevolume

Precoolingcoil

Impedance

Still heatexchanger

Impedance

Exchanger

Heater

Condenser

He3He3

He4 evaporator

4He pump

He3 He4

He4

He4

Fig. 7.16. Schematic of a typical 3He–4He dilution refrigerator with four heatexchangers [7.6]

[7.4,7.38]. The refrigerator in Leiden has a maximum circulation rate of ṅ3 =10 mmol s−1, a minimum temperature of 1.9 mK at ṅ3 = 0.85 mmol s−1 and acooling power of 20 µW at 10 mK. It contains the enormous quantity of 1.6 kgAg, and Ac = 1,000 m2, Ad = 1,300 m2 in total in the heat exchangers!

The new refrigerator at Lancaster [7.4] contains a very efficient tubularheat exchanger followed by 15 (!) discrete heat exchangers with diameters of


Four small + four largesintered Ag h.e.

Cu-Ni support

20 mK ring

20 mK flange

Vespel support

Tubular h.e.

Still flange

One of sixcondensers

1K plate

Vespel support

Mixing chamber

Nuclear coolingspecimen

Main 7 T solenoid

Cu-plated st. st.radiation shields

St. st. vacuumjacket

10cm

4.2 K flange

Fig. 7.17. Schematic of the low temperature part of a 3He–4He dilution refrigeratorwith a nuclear refrigeration stage below it [7.38]

3–6 mm for the concentrated and 4–12 mm for the dilute channels (Fig. 7.20);they are filled with sinters made from about 190 g of nominal 70 nm Ag powder(see Sect. 13.6). It has reached a minimum temperature of about 1.8 mK atrather low circulation rates between 0.2 and 0.4 mmol s−1. Its cooling poweris 2 µW at 10 mK and at a circulation rate of 0.27 mmol s−1.

A small 3He–4He dilution refrigerator which can be inserted into a 4Hestorage dewar (50 mm neck diameter) is shown in Fig. 7.21; it is based on thesame principles as the 4He and 3He dipper cryostats discussed in Sects. 5.2.4and 6.2. It can be cooled from room temperature to the final temperatureof about 15 mK within a few hours; a typical circulation rate is 30 µ mol s−1.Such units are available commercially.

For use in high magnetic fields, in particular in high-pulsed magnetic fields,a refrigerator with the dilution unit made from plastics often is required toreduce eddy current heating. The lower end of these refrigerators needs tohave a small diameter to fit into the bore of the magnet. Such plastic dilution


Fig. 7.18. Low temperature part of a commercial 3He–4He dilution refrigeratorwith the still, a continuous heat exchanger, five-step heat exchangers and mixingchamber

Coo

ling

pow

er, Q

[mW

]

Temperature,T [mK]

10.1

0.2

0.5

1

2

5

10

20

50

100

200

500

1000

2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500

Fig. 7.19. Cooling power as a function of temperature of a commercial 3He–4Hedilution refrigerator with a dilution unit very similar to the one shown in Fig. 7.18.Data are for two still heating powers: 8mW (——–) and 22mW (−−−)


Fig. 7.20. The 15 discrete heat exchangers in the dilution refrigerator of [7.4]. Theyare filled with Ag sinter and arranged in two stacks above the mixing chamber


Precooling of 3He

Two-step exchangers

Still radiation shield

Vacuum can

Continuous exchanger

Still

3He impedance

4He impedance

4He inlet filter

Flange to 4Hestorage dewar

To

4 He

pum

p

To

3 He

pum

p

Vacuum andleads

4He evaporator

Mixing chamber

100

mm

400

mm

Fig. 7.21. A dipstick 3He–4He dilution refrigerator (courtesy of P. Sekowski,Universität Bayreuth)


Wirefeedthroughfilm breaker

condensingline

bellows top view

glue

bellows side view(enlarged)

glue

concentratedside

dilutedside

still

level gange

tubularheat exchanger

vacuum

Kapton bellowsheat exchanger

phase seperation

bell

mixing chamber

cone

20-40 mm

Fig. 7.22. Schematic of a plastic dilution refrigerator. The Kapton bellows heatexchanger is optional for refrigerators with minimum temperatures below 20mKand flow rates above 0.1 mmol or cooling power of about 30 µW at 30 mK; for detailssee [7.41]

refrigerators were developed by Frossati et al. [7.41] with outer diameters from14 to 40 mm (see Fig. 7.22). They have cooling powers of up to 1 (0.01) mWat 100 (20) mK, flow rates from 0.1 to 2 mmol s−1, and a minimum temper-ature of about 10 mK. The plastic refrigerators are made mainly from easilymachinable PVC (polyvinyl chloride) parts glued together with Stycast 1266.Thin-walled CuNi or stainless-steel tubes are glued with Stycast 2850FT –or simply by using a small amount of vacuum grease – to the plastic. In thesimpler versions, a tubular heat exchanger of several meters of a coiled Teflon


capillary for the concentrated 3He is sitting inside of a spiraling square groove(for the dilute phase) machined into a PVC cylinder. In the more elaborate de-signs for cooling to below 20 mK and for high circulation rates, a bellow-typeheat exchanger made from Kapton foils is added. The refrigerators do not havethe usual sintered metal heat exchangers. The total heat exchange areas arebetween 0.01 and 0.4 m2 only. The plastic mixing chambers of 2–50 cm3 for thevarious refrigerators are closed by a cone with a 5–10◦ angle sealed by vacuumgrease to the mating part [7.3, 7.41]. Another version of a demountable sealfor a mixing chamber is described in [7.44]. These joints allow easy access tothe mixing chamber for quick exchange of experiments that can be mounteddirectly onto the bottom cone. Because of their small size, these plasticdilution refrigerators can also be used as a dipstick refrigerator to be inserteddirectly into a 4He storage dewar (see Fig. 7.21). Reference [7.41] gives de-tailed instructions for fabrication of the various parts and on the performanceof the refrigerators.

Most dilution refrigerators operate according to the principles and designsdiscussed above. There are a few alternative designs of which I want to de-scribe the most useful ones. Of particular interest are refrigerators in whichthe circulation of the 3He gas is achieved by internally regenerating adsorp-tion pumps, using mostly activated charcoal [7.45]. Recently, this charcoaladsorption pumping technology already described in Sect. 6.2 for closed 3Hecryostats has been introduced to commercially available continuously operat-ing 3He–4He dilution refrigerators [7.46]. Such systems, also for use inside ofa 4He storage dewar, have reached a minimum temperature of 15 mK and acooling power of 40 µW at 100 mK. The cooling time from 4.2 K to 50 mK is2 h only and removal of the dilution refrigerator from the dewar takes 0.5 h.The key distinguishing feature of the system is the absence of a traditional3He gas-handling system and mechanical 3He pump. Such a cryogenic 3Hecycle can substantially reduce vibrations of a dilution refrigerator because themain source for them is the pumps for circulating the 3He [7.47].

An alternative rather attractive variant is the use of commercially avai-lable two-stage closed-cycle refrigerators (Sect. 5.3) to precool the dilution unitand its radiation shields instead of using a cryostat filled with liquid helium.This combination has mostly been advanced by K. Uhlig. In his early designs,he used two-stage Gifford-McMahon refrigerators for precooling with a finaltemperature of 5.8 K at its second and 35 K at its first stage (for cooling theradiation shield) [7.48]. After varies improvements, in particular to reduce thetransfer of vibrations from the closed-cycle refrigerator to the dilution unitby using braided copper straps for thermal connection, he has reached 15 mKat a 3He flow rate of 0.11 mmol s−1 and in a later version 8.1 mK at a flowrate of 0.06 mmol s−1. Later on, he introduced a pulse-tube refrigerator forprecooling that has no moving cold parts and therefore a much smaller levelof vibration [7.49]. The first stage reached 45 K to cool the radiation shieldand the second stage could be operated at a temperature as low as about 3 K.At flow rates of 0.3–1 mmol s−1, the achieved minimum temperature of the


dilution refrigerator was 9 mK. Another remarkable design of Uhlig’s cryogen-free dilution refrigerators is the use of a double-mixing chamber by which hecould reduce the minimum temperatures to 7.1 mK for the Gifford-McMahonapparatus and to 4.3 mK for the pulse-tube apparatus. In such a design, theflow of concentrated 3He, after it has entered the first mixing chamber, is di-vided into two streams. One is diluted in the first chamber. Its cooling capacityis used to precool the second part of the stream, which is then diluted in thesecond mixing chamber to about a factor of two lower temperatures. The dis-tribution of the flow is determined by the flow impedances of the connectingtubes. A detailed description of the method can be found in [7.48,7.50]. In allthese dilution refrigerators, no separate condenser for the circulating 3He isused. Instead, the incoming 3He is precooled and liquefied by a counterflowheat exchanger that uses the enthalpy of the cold 3He gas pumped out of thestill and subsequent Joule-Thompson expansion through a flow restriction.In [7.51], such a combination of Joule-Thompson expansion for precoolingthe circulating 3He gas and a two-stage hybrid Gifford-McMahon/pulse-tubecooler as the 4.2 K stage of the refrigerator has been described that is beingused for neutron-scattering experiments at millikelvin temperatures. In addi-tion, in [7.52] a combined Gifford-McMahon/dilution refrigerator system forprecooling a nuclear refrigerator (Chap. 10) to sub-millikelvin temperatureshas been presented. Recently, dilution refrigerators with pulse-tube precool-ing have become commercially available.

The main purpose of all these designs is to avoid (or to minimize) theexpensive and bulky room-temperature gas handling and pumping system andto avoid the external supply of liquid nitrogen and helium. The developmentsdemonstrate to which sophistication and the same time simplification theimportant technology of 3He–4He dilution refrigeration has been developedover the years.

For cooldown and diagnostics of the performance of a dilution refrigerator,resistance thermometers (see Sect. 12.5) should be attached to various flanges,on still and heat exchangers. Besides the usual thermometry techniques to bediscused in Chap. 12, a very successful technique to determine the temperatureof the liquid in the mixing chamber is a measurement of the T−2 dependenceof its viscosity (Fig. 2.19) by a wire vibrating in the liquid [7.4, 7.38, 7.53](Sect. 13.10.2). This wire resonator (for example, 100 µm Ta or NbTi bentto a 3–8-mm diameter semicircle) is set into oscillation by the Lorentz forceon the wire when a current at the resonance frequency of a few hundred Hzis passed through it in the presence of a magnetic field provided by a smallsuperconducting solenoid. The width of the resonance curve gives the dampingeffect of the liquid, which is then converted to temperature by using the knowntemperature dependence of the viscosity of the liquid which is proportionalto T−2 for a Fermi liquid at low enough temperatures (Fig. 2.19) and as longas the mean free path of the 3He quasiparticles does not exceed the radius ofthe wire. Such a vibrating wire can also be employed to locate the position ofthe phase boundary in the mixing chamber because the viscosity of pure 3He


0.8

3He dilute phase

3He concentrated phase

0.6

0.4

Sig

nal

(arb

. uni

ts)

0.2

0.0

825 830 835 840 845

Frequeucy ƒ [Hz]

Fig. 7.23. Comparison of the signals from vibrating wires (125 µm Ta in a field of50 mT) at 10 mK inside the dilute and the concentrated phases of 3He, respectively,in the mixing chamber of the dilution refrigerator of [10.32]. The sensors are usedas vibrating wire thermometers (see Sect. 13.10.2) as well as to locate the positionof the phase boundary of the liquids inside the mixing chamber

is much larger than that of the mixture (see Figs. 2.19 and 7.23). For moredetails on vibrating wire viscometers see Sect. 13.10.2.

A dilution refrigerator is a rather complicated apparatus with many partsjoined together by welding, hard soldering, soft soldering, or even gluing.To avoid later problems, it should therefore be carefully leak checked at roomtemperature, at LN2 temperature, and possibly at LHe temperature in eachrun. Localizing a leak may be quite time consuming and the refrigerator mayhave to be separated into various sections to find it, in particular if it isa “cold leak”. A procedure to localize a leak which is only penetrated bysuperfluid helium was described in [7.54]. In addition, the flow rates throughthe continuous 4He refrigerator and through the dilution unit should be testedat room temperature and at LN2 temperature.

General considerations for designing a dilution refrigerator are, of course,the space available for experiments and leads, access to experiments and tothermal heat sinks for the leads, mechanical stability, etc.

In addition to the low-temperature part of a dilution refrigerator, one usu-ally needs substantial room-temperature equipment for the pumping and gashandling circuits [7.3, 7.6, 7.9]. A self-explanatory example of such a systemis shown in Fig. 7.24. Of course, such a system should not have and shouldnot develop leaks, in order to avoid loss of the expensive 3He gas. This is par-ticularly important for equipment containing moving parts like pumps andvalves. One should therefore use valves sealed by bellows and sealed mechan-ical pumps modified for use with 3He as backing pumps for the usual Roots


B, booster; R, roots;, pump; P, regular mechanical pump;

, valve; , automatic valve; , manometer; , filter;

, water cooling; , vacuum gauge; , controlling switch;

, electrical connection

Symbols :

Fill

ing

with

3H

e

Fill

ing

with

N2

or 4

He

Cold traps

Dirty

Clean

Gas storage

70I Mix

70I Mix

70I Mix

From still

To leak detector

To condenser

Clean-upPB

R

P

HeN240I 3He

Fig. 7.24. Schematic diagram of the gas handling and pumping system of a 3He–4Hedilution refrigerator (courtesy of P. Sekowski, Universität Bayreuth)

or Booster pumps. The system must also contain safety features for the eventof cooling water failure or blockages in the refrigerator.

A gas handling system for a dilution refrigerator will always be operatedat subatmospheric pressure (to avoid loosing helium gas). If there is a tinyundetected leak, air will get into the circulating gas. In addition, there willbe products from cracking of pumping oil. Both the air and the organic gaseswould condense in the refrigerator and would very soon plug the condenser,capillaries, impedances or heat exchangers of such refrigerators, which aresometimes intended to run for months. To avoid this problem, a “cold trap”at LN2 temperature (and sometimes possibly a second one at LHe temper-ature [7.55]) has to be inserted after the pumps to freeze out these gases(Fig. 7.25). With proper precautions, dilution refrigerators have been contin-uously operated for about a year.


Cu mesh

Cu mesh orCu felt metal

Charcoal

Fig. 7.25. LN2 cooled activated charcoal/Cu mesh trap (courtesy of R.M. Muellerand P. Sekowski)

Before starting up a dilution refrigerator one has to know the volumes of itsvarious components, to determine the necessary total molar quantity of helium(n3 +n4), and the isotopic ratio n3/(n3 +n4) – typically 25% – to position thefree surface in the still and the phase separation line in the mixing chamber.Later corrections of n3 and/or n4 after the first low temperature trials maybe necessary. A capacitance level gauge or a vibrating wire resonator (seeFig. 7.23) in the mixing chamber to monitor the phase separation line is veryhelpful when adjusting the amount of 3He for maximum performance of therefrigerator [7.3, 7.4, 7.56].


3He–4He dilution refrigerators are among the most important equipmentfor condensed-matter physics nowadays because many properties of mat-ter have to be investigated at temperatures below 1 K to understand theirbehavior. To build such a system needs substantial experience and time; tobuy it needs appropriate funds. There are several hundred of these refrigera-tors in operation in research institutes today, and without doubt their numberwill still increase in the future. Their thermodynamics is well established andproblems usually result from design errors rather than from unknown phenom-ena. Hints of how to start up a dilution refrigerator and how to troubleshootit are given in [7.57,7.58].

Let me close this chapter by summarizing the five facts which are the basisfor the successful operation of this only known continuous cooling technologyfor temperatures below 0.3 K.

– 3He–4He mixtures undergo phase separation when cooled below 0.87 K,resulting in two phases between which the 3He atoms can be moved.

– The specific heat of a 3He atom is larger in the dilute phase than in theconcentrated phase, which results in the “production of cold” if this atompasses from the concentrated phase to the dilute phase.

– There is a finite solubility of 3He in 4He even for temperatures approachingabsolute zero resulting in a cooling power which decreases only with T 2

and not exponentially as in the evaporation cooling process.– There is a substantial difference in the vapour pressures of 3He and 4He

at the same temperature, which allows the circulation of almost pure 3He.– If the helium mixtures are at different temperatures in a cryogenic appa-

ratus, there is an osmotic pressure difference causing the 3He to flow fromthe mixing chamber up into the still.

Problems

7.1. At which temperature does the upper, 3He rich phase of a phase-separated 3He–4He mixture contain a 4He concentration of only 10−6?

7.2. At which temperature would the Fermi heat capacity of liquid 3He reachthe classical value (7.10), if its heat capacity continued to vary with temper-ature, as expressed by (7.20)?

7.3. Would the limiting concentration of 3He in a 3He–6He mixture by largeror smaller than in a 3He–4He mixture?

Would the limiting concentration be larger if 3He were replaced by 5He ina mixture with 4He?

7.4. What is the reason for the heat capacity per atom being smaller for 3Hein 4He than in pure 3He? How would this result change if 4He were replacedby 6He?

Problems 189

7.5. Calculate the Fermi temperature of liquid 3He–4He mixtures with 3Heconcentrations of 0.1%, 1%, and 6.6%.

7.6. At which temperature do the osmotic pressures of a saturated mixturecalculated by the classical van’t Hoff’s law and calculated by the equation fora Fermi-degenerate system give the same value?

7.7. The effective mass ratio of pure 3He increases from about 2.8 at satu-rated vapour pressure to about 4.6 at 20 bar. In the same pressure range,the effective mass ratio for a saturated mixture increases from about 2.4 to2.8. How would the numerical value for the cooling power of a 3He–4He dilu-tion refrigerator given by (7.30) change if this refrigerator were operated at20 bar?

7.8. Calculate the optimum circulation rate ṅ3,opt and the minimum temper-ature Tmc,min taking ARKT 3 = 0.3m2K4 W−1 for (7.51), and A = 10m2.

7.9. Calculate the surface area of the heat exchanger in the mixing chamberof the 3He–4He dilution refrigerator, the performance of which is shown inFig. 7.19 (for Kapitza resistances see Fig. 4.5 and Sect. 4.3.2).

Documents

7 He– He Dilution Refrigerator...A group at Leiden University built the ﬁrst refrigerator based on this principle in 1965 and reached a temperature of 0.22K [7.1], the lowest temperature