First Xenon Liquefaction at Nantes by using Pulse Tube Cryocooler Workshop FJPPL’07, 9-12 May 2007, KEK, Japan Tom Haruyama (KEK) Eric Morteau, Patrick Le Ray, Cyril Grignon Noel Servagent, Jean-Pierre Cussonneau Dominique Thers (Nantes) D_R&D_6 Liquid xenon detector technology
…following Dominique’s talk…. 1. LXe PET cryogenic system at Nantes 2. Pulse Tube Cryocooler Development at KEK 3. First xenon liquefaction at Nantes 4. Application to other Liquid Xenon Experiments 5. Summary and plan for this year
Liquid xenon - any specialties in cryogenic?
Physical Property of Xe PropertyLXe (saturated) LN 2 (saturated) T(K): temperature at 0.1 MPa (kg/m 3 ): density at 0.1 MPa lv(kJ/kg): latent heat (liquid)/mass Lv(kJ/L): latent heat (liquid)/volume ls(kJ/kg): latent heat (solid)/mass Ls(kJ/L): latent heat (solid)/volume Triple point K MPa K MPa …How to cool ?
Cooling method – Mechanical refrigerator- Specially, Pulse Tube Cryocooler: Advantages: -Just switch on! For… -Precise temperature and pressure control, -LN 2 -Free operation -Quiet, maintenance free for years’ operation Cooling power requirement: -up to Developed at KEK
KEK-developed High-Power Pulse tube Cryocooler -Cooling power achieved -Technology Transferred for upgrading to 200W KEK-Iwatani PC150
First Xenon liquefaction at Nantes, March-April 2007
General set-up
Xenon gas main tank with LN 2 vessel Gas purification panel
Experimental chamber with a pulse tube cryocooler Pulse tube cryocooler Helium compressor
On-site 計測パネル LabVIEWパネ ル
Temperature profile during pre-cooling
Pressure profile during pre-cooling
Liquid xenon level profile 6L Liquefaction Steady state 1 day
Liquid xenon temperature and pressure profile (steady state) Temperature profile Pressure profile
Now, this PT cryocooler is ready for extended scientific experiments, MEG, XENON10,…
Final MEG LXe Calorimeter 800 liter LXe detector with 850 PMTs Total heat load: 130 W at 165 K
XENON10 Experiment for Dark Matter search in Gran Sasso underground
Summary First xenon liquefaction at Nantes by Pulse Tube Cryocooler: - 2-day pre-cooling and 12 hours for 6 litters liquefaction -3-day steady operation without any instability Confirmed cryogenic system performance: -Convenient (LN2-free Operation…) -Quiet -Stable Cryogenic system is ready for LXe proto-chamber experiment: -next for the first chamber performance test in June
Great Contributions: -Eric Morteau (Electronics) -Patrick Le Ray (Mechanics) -Cyril Grignon (PhD student) -Noel Servagent (Xenon Cryogenics) -Jean-Pierre Cussonneau (Simulation) -Dominique Thers (Team Leader) (Nantes) -Tom Haruyama (Xenon Cryogenics) (KEK) 17:03 21 March 2007 Successful ‘First Xenon Liquefaction’ at Nantes! Evidence of successful collaboration