Rules concerning Superconducting Magnets and Dilution Refrigerator Experiments

Experiments involving superconducting magnets and/or dilution refrigerators are labor-intensive for the sample environment staff and imply a quite high risk of problems, especially at the beginning of an experiment. In the evening and on weekends, there is only very limited technical support. In order to minimize beam time losses, some rules have to be established:

Experiments with superconducting magnets and/or dilution refrigerator experiments

• The experiments must start on a working day, early in the morning.
• Aligning the sample with neutrons must be done before the starting day.

Dilution refrigerator experiments

• Sample changes must be planned on working days
• Experiments should not start on Fridays or at a day before a holiday. If a beam block begins at such a day, the mounting and cooldown of the dilution refrigerator should be planned for the day before.
• The sample must in general be ready (put on/into a suitable holder) in the morning of a workday before starting the experiment, except when the stick is already used immediately before. Please contact the sample environment staff before booking the travel in order to agree about the latest time possible for putting the sample into the diltuion stick.
• Sample changes take a full working day, i.e. the warming up of the old sample must start early in the morning.
• The number of dilution refrigerator experiments is limited. Experiments during internal beam time have to be approved by Joël Mesot (scientific relevance for LNS) and by Markus Zolliker (availability).