Cryogenic Measurements

Many materials display changes in properties related to new electronic phases at temperatures well away from room temperature, therefore accessing high and low temperatures is vital to studying new phenomena and better understanding advanced materials. In particular, many ordered magnetic states are only accessible at cryogenic temperatures and therefor it is only possible to observe these by cooling the material below it’s magnetic transition. Likewise, phenomena such as superconductivity have currently only been observed in ambient conditions at low temperatures, so the only way to study materials with these properties is at low temperature.

I16 has several standard cryostats that cover a wide temperature range whilst allowing for a range of scattering geometries with minimal effect on the background. Closed-cycle cryostats by ARS are used routinely on I16 to access temperatures as low at 6K and as high as 800K. These cold-figure based cryostats sit on top of the kappa-diffractometer, they operate in vacuum and have a beryllium dome allowing wide access for scattering in many different geometries. Specifications for these cryostats are given below:

The beamline also has use of a nitrogen cryostream that can be used to cool and warm a small sample in the temperature range ~80K - 500K. At low temperatures, a dry air flow is used to surround the nitrogen gas, reducing ice forming on the sample.

In this case, samples are mounted on a pin or standard crystalographic loop.

If you have any comments, suggestions or corrections, please contact a member of the beamline staff.