Équipe de recherche
Helium : from fundamental to applications
Exploring physics from quantum vortices to cosmos using helium and cryogenics
Goals
The HelFA team research activities cover two broad topics : fundamental physics using helium as a model system (links sous-pages et/ou pages externes), and the development of sophisticated cryogenic instrumentation (link dilu spatiale) for astrophysics and particle physics.
Our studies of helium address open questions in the fields of fluid mechanics, statistical physics, and soft matter. We presently focus on classical turbulence at very large Reynolds or Rayleigh numbers, the role of quantization in superfluid turbulence, and the influence of nanoscale confinement on quantum and classical properties of fluids.
Our developments of cryogenic instrumentation bear on refrigeration and detectors. Following the Planck’s mission technical and scientific successes, we work on the design and fabrication of a gravity insensitive, closed-cycle, 3He-4He dilution refrigerator, with performances meeting the needs of future space missions in terms of temperature and cooling power (several microwatts at 50 mK). On the detector side, we switched in 2007 from bolometers to superconducting resonators arrays (Kinetic Inductance Detectors or KIDs), in order to develop cameras detecting either mm-wave radiation or elementary particles, in particular for astrophysical observation of the early universe. Today, within the Grenoble collaboration (LPSC, IPAG, NÉEL, IRAM), we have a leading position at the international scale, exemplified by the realization of the most advanced mm-wave camera in the world, NIKA2, installed on the IRAM 30 m diameter Pico Veleta telescope, and many national and international collaborations
Turbulence
In this axis, we develop instrumental, experimental, numerical and theoretical approaches for the understanding of turbulence, either classical or quantum.
Our classical turbulence studies take advantage of the small kinematic viscosity of low temperature helium gas to reach extremely high Reynolds or Rayleigh numbers in laboratory scale experiments. A recent example is the GREC experiment, which we coordinate at CERN in the framework of the EuHit European network, where we measured the statistics of turbulence with unprecedented resolution using ultra-miniaturized anemometers.
Below 2.17 K, liquid helium is superfluid, implying that vorticity is quantized, in contrast to classical fluids where it is continuous variable. Vortices become discrete objects, which can divide or recombine. Using different detection methods (pressure or second sound measurements, visualization) , we explore the consequences of their specific dynamics on the nature of quantum turbulence by combining in-house experiments (TOUPIE, CryoLEM) with very large-scale experiments (SHREK at CEA-DSBT) performed in the framework of national and international collaborations. These endeavours are complemented by numerical and analytical studies performed in collaboration with theoreticians.
Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
Coming soon…
Quantum turbulence
Turbulent flows of classical fluids, such as water and air, are marked by the occurrence of localized bursts of intense activity. These intermittent events are of central interest in modern theories of turbulence because the physical processes at play still escape our understanding. Quantum fluids offer a new route to explore the long-standing problem of turbulent intermittency. At microscopic scales, 4He quantum vortices are very intense swirling flows, with a velocity diverging near their cores of atomic-diameter. In a tangle with billions of quantum vortices, will the resulting macroscopic flow also exhibit intermittency ?
We address these questions by studying highly turbulent superfluid flows in experiments of moderate (TOUPIE) to very large scales (SHREK)
Dynamics of quantum vortices
Permanent Staff: M. Gibert, B. Chabaud
PhD and PostDocs: E. Durozoy, J. Vessaire
Ultimately, the intermittency of quantum flows must be very unique when probed at the scale on individual vortices. Experimentally, this limit is delicate to resolve with miniaturized sensors because vortex-sensor interactions are still poorly understood. Over the last years, we therefore developed the CryoLEM visualization experiment to resolve the 3D dynamics of individual vortices. In the future, this visualization experiment will allow to reacho scales where quantum effects should be prevalent.
Confined helium
We use cryogenic helium as a model system to study and understand general phenomena such as the nature of the condensation/evaporation mechanisms in nanoporous materials, or the influence of confinement and disorder on superfluidity.
Our studies are performed both in disordered porous materials and in ordered systems of non-interconnected pores of controlled diameter, allowing us to discriminate the respective effects of disorder and confinement.
In the framework of recent collaborations, we extended some of these studies to other fluids than helium.
Superfluidity under Confinement
Staff: Jacques Bossy
Collaborators: J. Ollivier (ILL), H. Glyde (Delaware U.)
Below Tλ, we study the influence of disorder and confinement on the superfluid phase of 4He. To that aim, we use neutron inelastic scattering performed at Institut laue Langevin to detect the presence of elementary excitations (rotons), which are a specific signature of a Bose-Einstein condensation. This allows to test the existence of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) without relying on the detection of global superfluidity. Our experiments on Gelsil show that, due to disorder, Bose-Einstein condensation involves the formation of isolated BEC pockets without global phase coherence and associated superfluidity. Currently, we investigate this phenomenon in ordered porous materials constituted of independent, narrow (< 2 nm), cylindrical channels (FSM-16, provided by Masuda’s group in Japan) with the goal of understanding the effects of low dimensionality on the ground state and excitations of this quantum system.
Condensation and Evaporation
Present staff: Panayotis Spathis, Pierre-Etienne Wolf
Present collaborators: Laurent Cagnon (MNM team), Jean-Christian Anglès d’Auriac (TMC team), E. Rolley (LPENS, Paris),
Former PhD students and Post-docs : Victor Doebele, Fabien. Souris, Geoffroy Aubry, Fabien Bonnet, Laurent Guyon, Mathieu Melich, Thierry Lambert
Generically, a porous material does not fill and empty the same way. A clear signature of that is the hysteresis between the condensation and evaporation branches of the isotherm, i.e. the density-pressure relationship at a given temperature.
Our goal is to contribute to the physical understanding of the condensation and evaporation mechanisms, in relationship with the geometry and topology of the porous materials (pores size, pore connectivity, disorder, ..). Such an understanding is mandatory to give a firm basis to methods used to characterize nano- or micro-porous materials from the measurement of isotherms. Beyond this practical aim, studying condensation and evaporation in porous materials is a model of choice for exploring the effects of confinement and disorder on first-order phase transitions.
On that aim, we combine experiments and simulations based on simple theoretical models. We use different porous materials such as silica aerogels (dilute disorder), porous glasses (interconnected disordered pores), and nanoporous silicon and alumina membranes (independent pores). Their typical pore scale ranges from several nanometers to several tens of nanometers.
Up to recently, we focused on helium as a fluid, due to some specific advantages (low index of refraction favoring some types of optical studies, low surface tension reducing the back-action of condensation on the porous material structure, extended range of available temperatures up to the critical point, simple atomic structure and interaction potential). Today, in the context of a collaborative project (ANR CavConf, Cavitation under Confinement), we have extended our studies to other fluids, so as to gain a more complete picture of the phenomena at play.
Recent salient results are:
- the demonstration that condensation of helium into silica aerogels is an experimental realization of the out-of-equilibrium Random Field Ising Model, and study of associated memory effects.
- the extension of the classical Saam and Cole model describing the hysteresis in a single cylindrical pore to include the effect of thermal activation.
- the development of a simple model combining cavitation and percolation mechanisms able to explain our observation of a temperature crossover in the evaporation of Helium from Vycor glass.
- the direct demonstration of the homogeneous nature of cavitation in model porous systems
Associated publications
Bonnet F, Melich M, Puech L, and Wolf P E. Light scattering study of collective effects during evaporation and condensation in a disordered porous material. Europhys. Lett.,101, 16010 (2013).[EPL]
Aubry G., Bonnet F., Melich M., Guyon L., Spathis P., Despetis F., Wolf P.E. Condensation of Helium in Aerogel and Athermal Dynamics of the Random-Field Ising Model.Phys. Rev. Lett., 113, 085301 (2014). [PRL]
Bonnet F. and Wolf P. E. Thermally Activated Condensation and Evaporation in Cylindrical Pores. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 123, 1335 (2019).[JPPC]
Bonnet F., Melich M., Puech L. †, Anglès d’Auriac J.C., and Wolf P. E. On Condensation and Evaporation Mechanisms in Disordered Porous Materials. Langmuir, 35, 5140 (2019).[Langmuir]
Doebele V., Benoit-Gonin A., Souris F., Cagnon L. , Spathis P. , Wolf P.-E., Grosman A.†, Bossert M., Trimaille I., C. Noûs C., and Rolley E, Direct observation of homogeneous cavitation in nanopores, https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03521
NAI Presentation, members, collaborations
The Neel Astrophysics Instrumentation (NAI) group gathers, on a project-by-project base, researchers and engineers from the Institut Néel and other laboratories (e.g. LPSC, IRAM, IPAG). We develop sophisticated, state-of-the-art, low temperature instrumentation for Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics.
Today, NAI main axis is the development and operation of mm-wave cameras for astronomical studies, based on the superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) technology. This technology has now reached a high level of maturity, in particular thanks to our contributions over the last decade. Other axes, within different collaborations, are the study of the coherent neutrino scattering and studying new low-temperature detectors like sub-gap KIDs or TED (Thermoelectric Detectors)
One of our specificities is that we cover the full span of needed expertises, from the detector to the instrument level : basic physics of Kids, design and realization of the detectors and the cryogenic systems, mm-wave optics, acquisition electronics, data processing… A key success of this integrated strategy has been the successful development and installation of NIKA2, the second generation NÉEL-IRAM-KID-Array, a dual-band millimetre-wave camera operating simultaneously at 150 and 260 GH. Built by an international consortium led by our group, NIKA2 is installed at the 30-meters diameter telescope of the IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique) on Pico Veleta. Since 2016, it is open to the astronomers via competitive calls.
Currently (2020), we focus on the CONCERTO instrument, a large field-of-view spectro-imager operating at millimeter wavelengths from the APEX 12-meters telescope in Chile. The main science goal is to shed light on the primordial galaxies formation.
Current members of the Néel Astrophysics Instrumentation group:
- Alessandro Monfardini (coordinator, DR2, HELFA)
- Alain Benoit (ex-coordinator, DRHC-emeritus, HELFA)
- Martino Calvo (IR2, Cryogenics)
- Florence Levy-Bertrand (CR1, MAGSUP)
- Usasi Chowdhuri (PhD, HELFA)
- Daniele Delicato (PhD, co-tutelle Roma La Sapienza)
- Sofia Savorgnano (PhD, co-tutelle LPSC)
- … and many close collaborators at LPSC, IRAM, IPAG. François-Xavier Désert, Andrea Catalano, Juan Macias-Perez, Nicolas Ponthieu, Eduard Driessen, Samuel Leclercq, Julien Bounmy, Christophe Hoaurau etc.
Former NAI group members:
- Christian Hoffmann (MCF, HELFA) – Currently at SUP-UGA, France
- Loren Swenson (postdoc) – Currently at D-WAVE Systems, Vancouver, CA
- Angelo Cruciani (PhD) – Currently at INFN-Roma, Italy
- Nicolas Boudou (PhD) – Currently at ULIS, France
- Antonio D’Addabbo (PhD) – Currently at Laboratori Nazionali Gran Sasso, Italy
- Alessia Ritacco (PhD, LPSC) – Currently at IRAM Granada, Spain
- Aurelien Bideaud (PhD) – Currently at ESRF, Grenoble, France
- Markus Roesch (PhD, IRAM) – Currently at Institute Fraunhofer, Freiburg, , Germany
- Gregoire Coiffard (PhD, IRAM) – Currently at IQM Quantum Computers, Finland
- Johannes Goupy (postdoc) – Currently at PTA, Grenoble, France
- Gizem Soylu (PhD, co-tutelle LAHC-Chambery) – Currently at ST Microelectronics, France
- Shibo Shu (PhD, co-tutelle IRAM) – Currently at Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing, China
- Alessandro Fasano (PhD) – Currently at LAM, Marseille, France
- Olivier Dupré (PhD) – Currently ??
- Philippe Camus (IR1) – Currently also at Absolut System, France
- Francesco Valenti (undergraduate) – Currently in at IBM Quantum, USA
An « in progress » list of collaborations (probably not exhaustive):
- NIKA2 – We have originated, and we are leading, the NIKA and NIKA2 international Consortium involving researchers from France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, USA etc.
- LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) – CONCERTO instrument
- CNES – R&T programs about KID detectors
- APC Paris – Planar structures operating at millimetre wavelengths
- CALDER (Università di Roma « La Sapienza ») – Detectors to study the fundamental properties of the neutrino (double beta decay)
- BULLKID (Università di Roma « La Sapienza », INFN Ferrara) – Detectors to study the fundamental properties of the neutrino (coherent nu-N scattering)
- IAC (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) – KISS instrument
- CSIC Madrid – KISS instrument and R&D on KID detectors
- KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) – Materials study (e.g. AlOx) and cosmics rays interactions
- IPNL Lyon (Nuclear Physics Institute in Lyon) – Coherent neutrino scattering and dark matter search, e.g. wifiKID, RICOCHET
- CSNSM – Fundamental superconductivity studies
- CEA Grenoble – Fundamental superconductivity studies
- IRAM – Upgrade of the NIAK2 detectors
- LAHC Chambery – THz microscopy
- LabEx FOCUS – Focal plane arrays for astronomical applications
Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID)
General context
Particularly in the case of modern astronomical and particle physics applications, it is clear that the main challenge resides in achieving the extremely demanding sensitivity for a large number of detectors (thousands) held at very low temperatures (0.1K or lower). These detectors must in some way be connected to the external World, and it is evident that the equivalence one wire per detector is not possible anymore. Our candidates are thus the most sensitive detectors that are adaptable to large arrays : the Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID).
Physics introduction
Superconductivity arises, below a given critical temperature Tc and for selected materials, thanks to an effective attractive force between electrons. Each electron « polarizes » the surrounding medium (lattice + electrons), generating a net excess positive charge. This charge will in the end be able to attract other electrons. This mechanism, submitted to the laws of quantum mechanics, leads to the formation of the so-called Cooper pairs, i.e. systems of two coupled electrons. A minimum energy, the superconducting gap, is required to break the link within the pair. At T < Tc, the Cooper pairs, also known as superconducting carriers, cannot be split by thermal phonons, or quanta of lattice vibrations. They can thus live in the lattice itself. They will also move, under the action of an external electric field, without the Ohmic losses associated to the electron-phonon interaction. At T > Tc, the attractive force is still present, but too small to win against the thermal agitation of the lattice. When a Cooper pair for any reason is broken, the two resulting electrons living in the peculiar sea of Cooper pairs and the lattice are called quasi-particles. At any finite temperature below Tc, a given number of quasi-particles co-exist with the Cooper pairs. The « fragility » of all theses mechanisms for low-Tc ( < 4K) superconductors is extremely useful for detection applications. The lower the critical temperature is, the less energy is needed to perturb the microscopic equilibrium. This is the base of the use of superconductors as building blocks for ultra-sensitive detectors. For example, incident photons exceeding twice the superconducting gap energy (Tc=1K, equivalent to a single 65 GHz photon) result in pair breaking and a concurrent rise in quasi-particle density. At sufficiently low temperature (T << Tc) and in high quality films, these non-equilibrium quasi-particles have a long lifetime due to the low quasiparticle-phonon interaction. For example, typical lifetimes in high quality aluminium films at 100 mK can exceed a millisecond. For certain specific geometries, in particular very thin films, the elevated quasi-particle density results in a change in the surface reactance of the material. This is known as the kinetic inductance effect. It can be demonstrated that for thin (< 40 nm for Al, Tc >> 1.4K) superconducting films the kinetic inductance, and the detectors sensitivity, is inversely proportional to the thickness, t. Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID) harness this changing reactance of the superconductor by embedding it in a high quality resonant circuit electromagnetically coupled to a transmission line. Slight deviations in the kinetic inductance results in a measurable shift in the resonant frequency of the device.
KID
The KID detector has been proposed by the Caltech-JPL group in 2001. Since then, a number of groups in the World are developing this technology. The specificity of our group is that we have pioneered the utilisation of KID into real astrophysics instrumentation.
Applications
In this framework we have developed detectors for the following applications :
- Millimeter-wave Astronomy
- Particle Detection (rare events)
- Superfluid helium turbulence studies
- Integrated mm-wave spectroscopy (SWIFTS)
- Fundamental superconductivity studies
Interactions et collaborations
We have established active collaborations with all the laboratories in France involved in low temperature detectors for the millimetre and sub-millimetre bands. We collaborate actively with IRAM, LPSC, IPAG (Grenoble), IRAM (Granada), LAM (Marseille), LLAMA Consortium (Brazil-Argentina), APC, Observatoire de Paris (Paris), IAS, CSNSM (Orsay), Cardiff University (UK), SRON (Holland) , CAB (Madrid), Arizona State University (US), CNES, IRAP (Toulouse), Università ans INFN Roma, KIT (Karlsruhe), LAHC (Chambery), CEA-Irfu (Saclay).
Results
Please see the entries concerning NIKA, NIKA2, CORE and the others for a list of results.
Some selected publications (not exhaustive)
“The NIKA2 Instrument, A Dual-Band Kilopixel KID Array for Millimetric Astronomy”
M. Calvo, A. Benoit, A. Catalano, J. Goupy, A. Monfardini, N. Ponthieu, et al.
Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Volume 184, Issue 3-4, 816 (2016)
“A dual-band millimeter-wave kinetic inductance camera for the IRAM 30-meter telescope”
A. Monfardini, A. Benoit, A. Bideaud, L. J. Swenson, M. Roesch, F. X. Desert, S. Doyle, A. Endo, A. Cruciani, P. Ade, A. M. Baryshev, J. J. A. Baselmans, O. Bourrion, M. Calvo, P. Camus, L. Ferrari, C. Giordano, C. Hoffmann, S. Leclercq, J. F. Macias-Perez, P. Mauskopf, K. F. Schuster, C. Tucker, C. Vescovi, S.J.C. Yates
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Volume 194, Number 2, 24 (2011)
“NIKA : A Millimeter-Wave Kinetic Inductance Camera”
A. Monfardini, L. J. Swenson, A. Bideaud, F. X. Desert, S. J. C. Yates, A. Benoit, A. M. Baryshev, J. J. A. Baselmans, S. Doyle, B. Klein, M. Roesch, C. Tucker, P. Ade, M. Calvo, P. Camus, C. Giordano, R. Guesten, C. Hoffmann, S. Leclercq, P. Mauskopf, K. F. Schuster
Astronomy and Astrophysics 521, A29 (2010)
« High-speed phonon imaging using frequency-multiplexed kinetic inductance detectors »
L. J. Swenson, A. Cruciani, A. Benoit, M. Roesch, C. S. Yung, A. Bideaud, A. Monfardini
Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 263511 (2010)
« In situ measurement of the permittivity of helium using microwave NbN resonators »
Grabovski, G. J., Swenson , L. J., Buisson O., Hoffmann, C., Monfardini A., Villégier, J.-C.
Applied Physics Letters, 93, 134102 (2008)
Funding
This work has been funded by several ANR contracts (MKIDS, NIKA, NIKA2Sky, ELODIS), the Nanoscience Foundation, the LabEx FOCUS, the CNES, the EU (FP7), the Region Rhone-Alpes, the UK-FRance Alliance program, the Université Franco-Italienne, ERC, INSU, IN2P3 and others.
Stages and PhD
Please contact :
alessandro.monfardini[at]neel.cnrs.fr
alessandro.monfardini[at]neel.cnrs.fr
florence.levy-bertrand[at]neel.cnrs.fr
NIKA and NIKA2
The first KID camera in the World (NIKA, 2009) and its successor NIKA2
Historical background
In November 2008, the IRAM (Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimetrique) issued a « call of interest » for the next generation instrumentation of the Pico Veleta 30-meters telescope. We decided to propose an innovative dual-band camera based on KID technology. Since then we have coordinated a steadily growing consortium around what we called the NIKA (Néel IRAM KID Arrays) and then NIKA2 instruments.
NIKA0 (2009)
The first multiplexed KID camera ever on the Sky. 30-42 pixels operating at 150 GHz. See this paper for the technical details of the first KID camera ever on the Sky.
NIKA1 (2010-2015)
The NIKA1 camera, dual-band (356 pixels operating at 150GHz and 250GHz), the first KID instrument ever open to the general astronomical community.
- Paper containing the details of the NIKA1 dual-band camera.
- Paper containing the for the results of the commissioning (test) campaigns.
A shift at the telescope for some of us. From left to right : Martino, Andrea, Alessandro, Juan and Nicolas.
NIKA2 (2015- )
The biggest and more sensitive mm-wave camera available to the astronomers for the period 2015-2025. 3000 pixels operating at 150GHz and 260GHz and measuring the linear polarisation at 260GHz. For more details please refer to this Astronomy&Astrophysics paper.
The NIKA2 big (1.2 tons) dilution cryostat installed at the telescope
- NIKA2 installation press release.
- NIKA2 main webpage hosted at IPAG.
- NIKA2 webpage at IRAM.
NIKA3 (2025 ?? )
Taking advantage of the foreseen upgrade of the 30-meters telescope, we think we are in position to propose a new instrument to replace NIKA2.
STAY TUNED
KISS and CONCERTO
Our group is developing new instruments dedicated to perform millimetre-wave spectroscopy on large field-of-views. Collaborations : LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, pipeline, computers and scientific coordination of CONCERTO), Cardiff (multimesh optics components for KISS and CONCERTO) , Madrid-CAB, Arizona State University (low-noise amplifiers for CONCERTO).
- The CONCERTO cryostat is operational in Grenoble, and hosts arrays, since February 2020. It was run for two months during the March-May lockdown.
- The CONCERTO pipes and cables have been installed at APEX on February 2020
- The 2018 Nobel Prize Gérard Mourou, and his wife, visit the CONCERTO cryostat (15/10/2019)
- FIRST LIGHT FOR KISS at Tenerife (13/12/2018). And since then many « espectra » has been acquired. The results are collected in the PhD Thesis of Alessandro Fasano (23/11/2020).
- BREAKING NEWS (22/11/2018) : the KISS instrument arrived in Tenerife. Please follow us at the following link :
In the following we describe the CONCERTO project (Chile) and its pathfinder, KISS (Tenerife, Canary islands).
CONCERTO (CarbON CII line in post-rEionization and ReionizaTiOn epoch) is a project dedicated to the study of the primordial CII line and the dark ages. It is proposed for installation on a 12-meters antenna operating above 5000 meters a.s.l. (APEX). CONCERTO will cover the frequency range 200-380GHz, equivalent to a redshift range comprised between 4.5 and 8. We are targeting the installation of CONCERTO on APEX in 2020.
For more information concerning the science case see for example the following links :
CONCERTO NEWS (November 2018). ESO has nominated a committee in charge of evaluating the CONCERTO technical compatibility at APEX. Good work to this committee and to us ! The review meeting is scheduled for the 13/02/2019 in Bonn.
CONCERTO NEWS (April 2018). First visit of the CONCERTO team at APEX. We are delighted by the quality of the telescope and the team we have met there. We will not forget this visit. On top of that, we have installed sensors to demonstrate that the deformations of the C-cabin are acceptable for CONCERTO.
Part of the CONCERTO team at APEX in 2018. Not just visiting : we have installed sensors to measure the C-cabin deformations in view of the CONCERTO installation.
CONCERTO NEWS (February 2018). The CONCERTO team underwent extensive medical examinations. We have all received the green light of the CNRS doctors for working at 5100 meters altitude !!
CONCERTO NEWS (December 2017). The first funding for CONCERTO has been attributed in France. This will allow to start designing the cryostat begin 2018. The ERC European proposal, intended to finance the full construction of the instrument and the deployment in South America, has been submitted and is selected for the II phase. The integration study is currently ongoing in collaboration with APEX. A first operational visit of the NAI group to APEX is scheduled for the second half of April, 2018.
- KISS is the pathfinder instrument devoted to measure the spectrum of the galaxies clusters via the SZ effect. It is being fabricated to be installed on the 2.5 meters QUIJOTE telescope in Tenerife. The fabrication is going according to schedule during 2017 in Grenoble. The foreseen first campaign is likely to occur in 2018.
The KISS configuration on the QUIJOTE telescope
The Martin-Puplett interferometer is now moving, undergoing first tests since May 2017. Click on the next icon for a first video of it moving at 5Hz (range 100mm) :
KISS NEWS (December 2017). The first KISS arrays, fully multiplexed and containing 316 pixels each, have been fabricated and tested in the KISS cryostat. See below the VNA scan for one of those. A new version of the design has been elaborated based on these results.
KID for space
KID for Space, the CORE satellite and the planB stratospheric balloon
R&T KID for space
We have been in charge of three R&T actions funded by CNES :
- Demonstration of KID performance under low background conditions
- Extension of the KID range up to 600 GHz
- Study of the cosmic-rays impact on arrays of KID
See for example the papers :
SPICA satellite (ESA M5 proposal)
We are in charge, under CNES contract, of studying a possible (backup) KID-based solution for the focal planes of the B-BOP instrument on- board the SPICA satellite. We are in this framework developing LEKID operating in the THz range.
The planB (or B-SIDE) stratospheric balloon
During 2016, we have terminated (on Néel funds) the R&D for the proposed planB balloon for the study of the polarized CMB foregrounds in the band 450-700GHz. The project seems not funded by CNES, waiting for an official response.
Easycool: 50mK withour helium 3
In collaboration with CEA-SBT, we have developed a continuous-cycle ADR (Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator) able to reach 50mK. We have installed an array of KID (132 pixels) produced by our group and the suitable cold electronics on the 4 K stage. We have demonstrated that this system was able to work with good performance once the B fields of the cells shielded.
The easycool cryostat integrated in the CEA-SBT hall.
Planck
Our group has developed, under the coordination of Alain Benoit and Philippe Camus, the space-compatible dilution refrigerator of the satellite Planck. The flight model has then been built by Air Liquide under Néel expertize. The HFI instrument of the satellite Planck.
Planck has produced the best maps of the Universe at the time of matter-radiation decoupling (Cosmic Microwave Background). These maps, taken at frequencies between 30 and 850 GHz, will remain until at least 2030 the reference in the domain.
Dans la même rubrique
Rare events
We have, together with the cryogenics and electronics poles, developed the dilution cryostat and part of the acquisition electronics for the Edelweiss dark matter detector installed at LSM Modane, in the Frejus tunnel.
In the framework of the search of rare events, we participate to R&Ds (CALDER, BULLKID) and experiments (RICOCHET) dedicated to the study of the double-beta decay and the coherent neutrino scattering.
SUPERTED
The new SUPERTED detectors have been recently proposed. An EU project (FET-OPEN call) to further develop them has been approved and is ongoing. Groups in Finland (Jyväskylä), Spain (San Sebastian), Italy (Pisa) and France (Grenoble) participate to this challenge. We are in charge of elaborating an innovative readout scheme for these detectors, and testing them under millimeter-wave irradiation.
0g-CCDR
Associated permanent staff: Gérard Vermeulen, with support of P.F. Sibeud and S. Triqueneaux (Cryogenic Platform) and D. Grand and M. Heigeas (SERAS platform) among others.
Former PhD and PostDocs: Ariel Haziot, Angela Volpe, Chaudry Gunarajan, Florian Martin
The open cycle dilution refrigerator (OCDR) has been invented by A. Benoît at the NÉEL Institute to cool the detectors of the HFI instrument of the Planck spacecraft. It has delivered a cooling power of 100 nW at 0.1K for 30 months to study the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background. However, the OCDR is not able to meet the cryogenic requirements of future space missions. On that aim, we are developing a closed cycle dilution refrigerator (CCDR) requiring many conceptual and technological breakthroughs.
Dissolving 3He from almost pure liquid 3He into its coexisting dilute 3He-4He liquid phase is the basis of dilution refrigeration. Continuous refrigeration requires separation (by for instance distillation) of the 3He from the dilute phase for reuse in the dilution process. All dilution refrigerators on earth rely implicitly on gravity to localize the phase separation interfaces where dilution and separation occurs. Capillarity instead of gravity separates the different liquid phases in Planck’s OCDR design, and ejection of the mixture into space eliminates the still and a 3He pump at the cost of embarking both helium isotopes for the lifetime of the mission.
Nowadays, proposals for future astrophysical instruments require a cooling power of 1 µW at 0.05 K (X-IFU) or between 2 µW and 4 µW at 0.1 K (LiteBIRD) for a lifetime of 5 years or more. However, it is impossible to embark the required amounts of 3He and 4He on the satellite for financial and technological reasons. The goal of our studies is to close the cycle by means of an isotope separator at low temperatures with the aim to re-inject the 3He and the 4He in the closed cycle dilution refrigerator (CCDR) after separation.
In this project , we address the fundamental issues involved in the proper design of the CCDR (confinement of the liquid-vapor interface in the still, optimization of cooling power, thermal exchange between different sub-components, ..) and develop the practical realization of a demonstration model, with CNES and ESA funding.
Tools
Low temperature techniques are at the core of our research. These include advanced cryogenics developed with the support of the cryogenic and SERAS technological groups for design studies and realizations. Together with the NÉEL and LPSC’s electronic facilities, we also develop advanced electronics, such as on-board fast data acquisition and processing (KIDs multiplexed reading, fast cameras for vortex visualization, fast response anemometers, all FPGA based). Dedicated control and analysis softwares are also developed using different freeware tools. Specific probes are radiofrequencies for monitoring the KIDs resonators, optics for low temperatures (helium in membranes, cryogenic turbulence, mm-wave optics), and neutrons scattering (mostly at ILL). Top-down or bottom-up nanofabrication is also widely used (KIDs, turbulence probes, confining systems for helium). Finally, in collaboration with theoreticians, we use numerical simulations either on NÉEL’s cluster (percolation models for condensation/evaporation in porous materials) or on computers centres (theoretical studies of superfluid turbulence).