Condensation stage of a pulse tube pre-cooled dilution refrigerator Original Research Article

In our article, experiments with a pulse tube (PTR) pre-cooled dilution refrigerator (DR) are presented, where an upgraded 3He condensation stage has been tested. The DR had a 3He flow rate of up to 1.1 mmol/s. The 3He gas entering the refrigerator was first pre-cooled to a temperature of ∼50 K at the first stage of the PTR. In the next cooling step, the 3He was run through a recently installed heat exchanger, which was attached to the regenerator of the second stage of the pulse tube cryocooler; at the outlet of this heat exchanger the temperature of the 3He was as low as ∼4 K. Due to the non-ideality of the helium gas, the second regenerator of a two stage PTR has excess cooling power which can be made use of without affecting the base temperature of this stage, and it is this effect which was put to work, here. Finally, the 3He was further cooled in a heat exchanger, mounted at the second stage of the PTR, before it entered the dilution unit of the cryostat.