Practical design of a heat exchanger for dilution refrigeration

A compact heat exchanger for a dilution refrigerator with a high thermal efficiency is presented. Discrete heat exchangers with by-pass channels were used to decrease the flow impedance. This heat exchanger was designed so that the thermal conductance of liquid along the stream was greatly reduced. The effective thickness of the sponge material in the heat exchanger and mixer is also discussed. The obtained minimum temperatures of 12 mK was very close to the designed value of 10.8 mK. Moreover a rapid response was obtained. This is attributed to the small liquid volume of the heat exchanger. (author)