Institutu za fiziku and our inventors dr. Mladen Prester and dr. Đuro Drobac have been awarded patent US 9,458,969 B2 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the invention of “Cryostat with PTR cooling and two stage sample holder thermalization”.

The patented cryostat design is intended for use in experimental solid state physics. It is particularly suited for measurements of ac magnetic susceptibility as it combines the advantages of a bath cryostat with a closed-cycle helium system: the measurement coils are thermalized by boiling liquid nitrogen while the sample space is cooled using a two-stage pulse-tube refrigeration system.

Such a combined method  of cooling avoids the need for liquid helium which makes it portable and particularly economical as helium is an expensive and non-renewable natural resource. Extension of research, as well as planned commercial, merits of this patent represents one of the directions and objectives of the Institute’s infrastructural project KaCIF.