For technological experiments with superconducting detector chips, SRON has various laboratories with cryostats in both Leiden and Groningen.
Superconductivity requires cold temperatures
Cryostats cool systems to temperatures close to absolute zero (cryogenic temperatures). This is necessary for the precise testing and demonstration of superconducting detector chips for astronomy. At such extremely low temperatures, superconductivity begins to occur, which is a crucial phenomenon in the operation of our detector chips.
Our cryostats
We use a variety of cryostats from Bluefors and Leiden Cryogenics, among others, which can cool our detectors to temperatures of 50 milliKelvin or below. That is almost absolute zero, where particles no longer have any kinetic energy (temperature). A cryostat can also be seen in this video.
