Abstract
Up to now, all pulse tube refrigerators operating at the liquid helium temperature range use 4He as the working fluid. However, the lambda transition of 4He is a barrier for reaching temperatures below 2 K. Theoretical analysis in this paper shows that, using 3He, the temperature limit is below 2 K, and the efficiency of a 4 K pulse tube refrigerator can be improved significantly. A three-stage pulse tube refrigerator is constructed. A compressor with input power of 4 kW and a rotary valve are used to generate the pressure oscillations. With 4He, a minimum average temperature of 2.19 K was reached. Replacing 4He by 3He, at the same valve settings and operating parameters, the minimum average temperature goes down to 1.87 K and the cooling power at 4.2 K is enhanced about 60%. After fine tuning of the valves, a minimum average temperature of 1.78 K was obtained. This is the lowest temperature achieved by mechanical refrigerators.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 865-869 |
Journal | Cryogenics |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1999 |