Steady-State, ac-Temperature Calorimetry

TLDR

The paper presents a steady‑state ac‑heating technique for measuring heat capacity. Heat is applied sinusoidally to a sample coupled to a reservoir, and the resulting equilibrium temperature—whose inverse dependence on heat capacity can be measured precisely—is corrected for various systematic effects. The method accurately measures indium’s absolute heat capacity and captures beryllium’s field‑dependent heat capacity, with observed quantum oscillations matching theoretical predictions.

Abstract

A steady-state technique for measuring heat capacity using ac heating is described. Heat is applied sinusoidally in time to a sample coupled thermally to a reservoir; the resultant equilibrium temperature of the sample contains a term that is both inversely proportional to the heat capacity and measurable with high precision. The effects of various corrections that must be applied to the data are considered in detail. Measurements of the absolute magnitude of the heat capacity of indium and the field dependence of the heat capacity of beryllium have been made and are used to illustrate the power of the method. The observed quantum oscillations in the heat capacity of beryllium are in agreement with predictions based on other measurements.