Absolute linear thermal-expansion measurements on copper and aluminum from 5 to 320 K

A linear absolute dilatometer based on a three-terminal parallel-plate capacitor design has been used to obtain thermal expansion data for high-purity copper and aluminum from 5 to 320 K. These data have an absolute accuracy of +- 0.1% above 20 K for copper and above 30 K for aluminum, and agree well with published data at the higher temperatures. The disagreement which exists with other data below 5 K for copper and below 15 K for aluminum is believed to be sample dependent, but the mechanism is not known. The aluminum results in this region depend on the state of annealing of the sample