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History of Dilution Refrigeration
It was realized in 1964 in the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium at Leiden University by Das, P.; Ouboter, R. B.; Taconis, K. W. (1965). A Realization of a London‐Clarke‐Mendoza Type
Refrigerator. Low Temperature Physics LT9. p. 1253. (Tmin~220mK)
The principles and methods of dilution refrigeration have been substantially developed by J. Wheatley et al. at La Jolla.
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Sydoriak suggested in 1968 the use of plastic heat exchangers due to the low Kapitza resistance (cited in
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Radebaugh and Siegwarth suggested in 1974 the use of sintered silver powders in low temperature heat exchangers.
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Plastic heat exchangers and dilution refrigerators were developed in Grenoble by Frossati and coworkers: L. del Castillo, G. Frossati, A. Lacaze, and D. Thoulouze, Proc. LT 13, Boulder, 1972, (Plenum, New York, 1974). Vol. 4, p. 640., and later on in Leiden
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Modern « wet » refrigerators are based on the CNRS‐Grenoble design (G. Frossati et al.). The development of sintered silver heat exchangers led to Tmin~2 mK.
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« Dry » refrigerators were developed on Pulse‐tube coolers, independently by Koike et al., K. Uhlig et al. and H. Godfrin et al. in 1999. The first commercial unit was built in Grenoble (CNRS/Air Liquide) and delivered in 2003)
The large refrigerator built in Lancaster (G.R. Pickett et al.) holds the present record of low temperatures, 1.75 mK
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