Cryofree Dilution Refrigerator System

• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: Funded in 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 407591113

The head of the group is a leading researcher in the field of topological insulators and superconductors, who recently moved from Osaka to Cologne. An important new direction of the group is to pursue the novel physics of “Majorana fermions” by making use of nanodevices. Majorana fermions are exotic quasiparticles expected to appear in topological superconductors, and their peculiar properties are expected to provide a key to realizing a scalable quantum computer. The measurements of the nanodevices to clarify the nature of Majorana fermions require ultra-low temperature down to 10 mK and a low-noise environment, which can be realized by a suitable use of cryofree dilution refrigerators. The group is now using one cryofree dilution refrigerator, which was purchased in Osaka in 2014 and was transferred to Cologne. This existing machine has contributed greatly to the establishment of the necessary expertise in ultra-low-temperature lownoise experiments, but currently there is a significant shortage of the available machine time, which has become a big hindrance factor for the progress of the projects carried out in the group. The planned instrumentation is necessary for solving this problem to establish an internationally competitive research efforts on Majorana fermions in Cologne.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Cryofree Dilution Refrigerator System
• Instrumentation Group: 8550 Spezielle Kryostaten (für tiefste Temperaturen)
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Leader: Professor Dr. Yoichi Ando