Innovative special cooler and superconductor

Heavy ion research Superconductors for temperatures below minus 200 degrees Celsius

2024-10-03 From Hendrik Härter | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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A special ceramic cooler filled with liquid helium or nitrogen surrounds a superconductor at the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt (Germany). This allows particles to be accelerated to almost the speed of light.

Deep-frozen to - 200 degrees Celsius. The ceramic cooler developed by Kyocera combines high cold resistance and insulating properties.(Image: Kyocera) — Deep-frozen to - 200 degrees Celsius. The ceramic cooler developed by Kyocera combines high cold resistance and insulating properties.
(Image: Kyocera)

With a length of 1,100 meters, one of the most modern ring accelerators in Europe is coming. The Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) is being built at the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt (near Frankfurt, Germany). With its help, the extreme conditions— temperatures, pressures or densities —under which matter is created in the universe can be researched. In addition to the underground ring accelerator, there are also experimental rings and stations with several kilometers of beam paths. The facility has a total length of 3.5 km of beamline and eight accelerator and storage rings.

The high mobility of electrical charge particles, which occurs in certain materials—known as superconductors—at temperatures below minus 200 degrees Celsius, is used for this purpose. The particles can then be accelerated to almost the speed of light. To achieve the extreme cold, liquid helium or liquid nitrogen is passed through coolers developed by Kyocera that surround the superconductor.

These coolers combine the high cold resistance and insulating properties of ceramic tubes made of F99.7 aluminum oxide with the high thermal conductivity of contact heat sinks made of high-purity copper. Both components were joined using a nickel-iron alloy in a brazing process.

Cold resistance and electrical insulation

For decades, Kyocera has been a regular development partner of research institutions such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research. Together with the scientists, special ceramics are developed and tested to meet particularly high requirements. In addition to cold resistance, the electrical insulation of the individual copper heat sinks against each other up to 1 kV and the prevention of leaks in helium up to 10^-9 mbar l/s also played a decisive role in the coolers manufactured for GSI. The coolers were also designed for around 30 years of operation.

Today, particle accelerators are not only used in large-scale research facilities, but also in numerous other applications. These include, for example, imaging processes and radiation treatments in medicine, for drug and explosive detection during security checks at airports or generally for material analysis in laboratories. There are currently around 30,000 particle accelerators in use worldwide, and the number is rising. (heh)

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