The Design and Operation of a Magnetic Refrigerator for Maintaining Temperatures below 1°K

Abstract

The problems involved in the construction of a magnetic refrigerator operating below 1°K, using superconducting metallic links for the thermal valves and a paramagnetic salt as the working substance, are discussed. A cycle for the operation of the refrigerator is suggested and then examined for the optimum operating conditions with readily available laboratory facilities. Design equations are obtained and compared with our more recent experimental model. The constructional details of a completely automatic experimental model of the magnetic refrigerator using lead for the thermal valves, iron ammonium alum as the working substance, a helium bath at 1°K as the high-temperature reservoir, a maximum magnetic field of 7000 gauss, a 2 minute cycle of operation, and capable of extracting 120 ergs/second from a reservoir at 0.3°K are presented in full. Temperatures as low as 0.2°K are obtained with this model. Improvements in this this design, its use either for the production of an isothermal reservoir or as a heat sink for adiabatic demagnetization work below 1°K, and the extension to a two-engine refrigerator for the production of a reservoir at temperatures as low as 0.05°K are also discussed.