Superconducting cascade electron refrigerator

Maria Camarasa-Gomez (1) , Angelo Di Marco (2) , Frank. W. J. Hekking (2) , Clemens Winkelmann (3) , Hervé Courtois (3) , Francesco Giazotto (1)

1 NEST, Instituto Nanoscienze
2 LPM2C - Laboratoire de physique et modélisation des milieux condensés
3 NEEL - QuNES - Nano-Electronique Quantique et Spectroscopie

The design and operation of an electronic cooler based on a combination of superconducting tunnel junctions is described. The cascade extraction of hot-quasiparticles, which stems from the energy gaps of two different superconductors, allows for a normal metal to be cooled down to about 100 mK starting from a bath temperature of 0.5 K. We discuss the practical implementation, potential performance and limitations of such a device.

Domaines: Supraconductivité [cond-mat.supr-con]

Maria Camarasa-Gomez, Angelo Di Marco, Frank. W. J. Hekking, Clemens Winkelmann, Hervé Courtois, et al.. Superconducting cascade electron refrigerator. Applied Physics Letters, 2014, 104 (19), pp.192601. ⟨10.1063/1.4876478⟩. ⟨hal-00980124⟩