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Published April 2016 | Published
Journal Article Open

An apparatus for studying electrical breakdown in liquid helium at 0.4 K and testing electrode materials for the neutron electric dipole moment experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source

Abstract

We have constructed an apparatus to study DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium at temperatures as low as 0.4 K and at pressures between the saturated vapor pressure and ∼600 Torr. The apparatus can house a set of electrodes that are 12 cm in diameter with a gap of 1–2 cm between them, and a potential up to ±50 kV can be applied to each electrode. Initial results demonstrated that it is possible to apply fields exceeding 100 kV/cm in a 1 cm gap between two electropolished stainless steel electrodes 12 cm in diameter for a wide range of pressures at 0.4 K. We also measured the current between two electrodes. Our initial results, I < 1 pA at 45 kV, correspond to a lower bound on the effective volume resistivity of liquid helium of ρV > 5 × 10^(18) Ω cm. This lower bound is 5 times larger than the bound previously measured. We report the design, construction, and operational experience of the apparatus, as well as initial results.

Additional Information

© 2016 Published by AIP Publishing. Received 20 October 2015; accepted 2 April 2016; published online 25 April 2016. This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics. Development of acrylic-substrate electrodes was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Physics and AOT Divisions as well as the former LANSCE Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory. We also are grateful to Brown University Physics Department for making the 3He refrigerator and the cryostat available for this effort. One of the authors (T.M.I.) expresses his gratitude to Dr. M. Hardiman of the University of Sussex for fruitful discussions.

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