A French team of researchers has created and tested a cryostat where scientists can carry out the coldest experiments in the high-energy range in a synchrotron.
A photocopy of a drawing lies on the table of the control cabin of beamline ID12. It shows a cryostat and its heart: a spring-like metal tube and other components. Next to the drawing, lots of scribbles in different colours and on different dates, proof that this creation has been many years in the making. Steps away from the table, the real thing makes its appearance in the experimental hutch. Its majestic presence gives the beamline a new touch. It is the Très Basses Temperatures for miliKelvin (TBT-mK) cryostat.
Philippe Sainctavit, from the Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie, together with Jean-Paul Kappler and Loïc Joly, from the Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg and synchrotron SOLEIL, are the fathers of this invention. “We started working on this project 20 years ago, and this is the third version of the machine”, explains Kappler. The team has installed the machine on ID12 for their experiments in magnetism. “Because this is quite a particular piece of equipment, we needed a very strong understanding with the beamline staff. Thanks to the fact that we were all in the same wavelength, the installation, which lasted 5 weeks spread throughout the year, went very smoothly. We could not have done this without the strong collaboration with the ID12 staff, namely Andrei Rogalev, Fabrice Wilhelm and Pascal Voisin”, explains Sainctavit.