Market: Graduate students in condensed matter and atomic and molecular physics. This engagingly written book introduces the field and provides important information for those making low temperature measurements. Fundamental thermodynamic considerations are covered at the start and the book concludes with commercial applications and an appendix on laser cooling.

This practical book provides recipes for the construction of devices used in low temperature experimentation. It emphasizes what works, rather than what might be the optimum method, and lists current sources for purchasing components and equipment.

This book is for those physicists, physical chemists, metallurgists and engineers who need to carry out investigations at low temperatures. It deals with the production and measurement of low temperatures, the handling of liquefied gases on the laboratory scale, and the principles and details of the design of experimental cryostats, including the problems of heat transfer and temperature control. While covering the technical details needed by professional researchers, such as the electrical and thermal conductivities of materials used in making low temperature equipment, the book includes enough explanations of the fundamental principles that it will also be useful to advanced university students.

The aim of this book is to provide information about performing experi ments at low temperatures, as well as basic facts concerning the low tem perature properties of liquid and solid matter. To orient the reader, I begin with chapters on these low temperature properties. The major part of the book is then devoted to refrigeration techniques and to the physics on which they are based. Of equal importance, of course, are the definition and measurement of temperature; hence low temperature thermometry is extensively discussed in subsequent chapters. Finally, I describe a variety of design and construction techniques which have turned out to be useful over the years. The content of the book is based on the three-hour-per-week lecture course which I have given several times at the University of Bayreuth between 1983 and 1991. It should be particularly suited for advanced stu dents whose intended masters (diploma) or Ph.D. subject is experimental condensed matter physics at low temperatures. However, I believe that the book will also be of value to experienced scientists, since it describes sev eral very recent advances in experimental low temperature physics and technology, for example, new developments in nuclear refrigeration and thermometry.

Presents experiment, theory and technology in a unified manner. Contains numerous illustrations, tables and references as well as carefully selected problems for students. Surveys the fascinating historical development of the field.

Publisher description