This is my first self-made feedthrough, potted with epoxy and it is leak-tight! It is for the signal cables of a PT-100 temperature probe of the LAr-GAr heat transfer test setup from my previous post.
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Cable Feedthrough
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LAr-GAr Heat Exchange Test Setup
These are the gas components for a setup to test the liquefaction rate of pressurised argon gas when cooled by liquid argon at atmospheric pressure in an open tube heat exchanger. The gas components sit on top of an open Dewar flask, the heat exchanger will be immersed in the liquid below. Not bad for a one-day job with components I found in the lab and a little bit of DIY work, no?
The goal of the test is to determine the optimal geometry and the required exchange surface for the heat exchanger in the DS-20k cryostat. This heat exchanger will be necessary to boil off argon gas on the return site at a high rate for gas purification, and to liquefy the purified gas on the supply site.
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Registration of Utility Model
The utility model for the levelling system developed for Xenoscope at UZH is now visible online under the file number DE 20 2021 101 412 U1. This mechanism allows for a precise, almost force-free horizontal fine-adjustment of high mass assemblies. I developed it during my PhD with input by my colleague Frédéric Girard. In depth searches by both the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property indicate its novelty.
Edit 1 October 2022: The pending Swiss patent is now also published: CH718439 A2
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PhD Distinction
My PhD thesis will be awarded with a distinction by the Faculty of Science of UZH! I will receive the certificate during the PhD graduation ceremony on September 30.
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DarkSide Collaboration Meeting
From 3rd to 7th June, we had a very productive collaboration meeting at Pula, Sardinia. I finally met the collaboration members and really enjoyed it. I got the opportunity to present my preliminary CFD studies of the fluid flow of the inner detector.
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Installation Work at NP04
These days, I am working again at the Neutrino Platform at the Prevessin Site. I am preparing a PIN diode box with LED illumination for a cold test which was shipped from my colleagues at Hawai’i.
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Talk @ XeSAT2022
I am attending my first in-person conference since 2019. Today I will present my work on the Xenon W-value during the fundamental measurements session in beautiful Coimbra! The slides can be found here.
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Camera for Cryo-Test
This is the camera assembly that I quickly designed for the cryo-test. The off-the-shelf webcam is mounted inside an acrylic dome which is kept warm by a constant supply of warm GAr. A rotary feedthrough allows to look around during operation. It provides us with a view of the inside of the cryostat which is important to benchmark the evaporation performance of the heat exchanger assembly.
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Doctoral Defense
Yesterday, I successfully defended my thesis The Low-Energy and Large-Scale Frontier of Dual-Phase Xenon Time Projection Chambers for Dark Matter Search. The talk and the exam went really great and my committee recommended my work for distinction. I thank my supervisor Laura Baudis for the unique opportunity to work with her, for teaching and pushing me and giving me the freedom to develop. Thanks to her and the other committee members for the great guidance. Afterwards, we had a great party with my old group and my family. I will miss you folks! (The PhD hat in the picture is the result of the great and dedicated machining work of my friend Frédéric Girard.)
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Cryo Safety Course
After many online safety training courses at CERN, I finally had a classroom course on safety with handling cryogenic liquids today. Although this was not my first one of this type and I have worked a lot with LN2 and LXe during my PhD, it was a really well presented course and a good recap for me. The picture shows a setup to demonstrate the condensation of oxygen from the air on surfaces at LN2 temperature.
