Get Cold - Stay Cold
Four9 Design designed the SideKick series to allow higher cooling powers or “lift” on the sample cold plate. Several design features allow this. The big problem with larger coolers is that they inherently have much higher vibrations. We solved this by mounting the cryocooler and other sources of vibration to the floor using a small tower on the side of your optical table. This is where the name SideKick comes from.
Secondly, we developed high performance links to connect the cryocooler to the cold plate. These require a strong thermal connection and a weak mechanical connection. To do this, we innovated special thin flat links with thermal conductivity several times that of the best available alternative, Oxygen Free High Conductivity copper (OFHC).
Thermal Straps
These straps provide incredible thermal conductivity and yet decouple any motion from the rotating elements of the cryocooler or vacuum pumps from the cryostat. It is important to note that this energy doesn’t reach the cold plate but also does not excite the rest of the delicate optical elements on your optical table.
The RRR (Residual Resistivity Ratio) is the common metric for measuring the quality of a metal. It is the ratio of resistivity of a specific material at room temperature and at 4K. The higher the RRR, the higher cryogenic thermal conductivity. Our thermal links have one of the highest RRR values commercially available on the market today. Our thermal links have thermal conductivity values of up to 11,000 W/mK at cryogenic temperatures!
Our thermal links have been optimized to minimize the mechanical energy transfer across the thermal connection. The material is approximately 50% softer than that of common copper thermal straps and the link geometry is intentionally chosen to minimize any vibration transfer. This low stiffness and the ultra-high RRR combine to make a very powerful technology of our system.
Performance Results
