1. Cryogenic Technology from STFC www.cryox.co.uk

2. Cryox Ltd was formed in 2007 to provide a commercial face for cryogenic technology from the three main laboratories operated by STFC [the Science & Technology Facilities Council] one of 7 Research Councils operated by the UK Government

3. The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire was founded in 1957. It is home to the ISIS neutron source & the new Diamond synchrotron. It has a substantial Space Science Group, and a world-class Laser facility. A number of presentations from Dr Tom Bradshaw, Head of the Cryogenics Group at Rutherford Appleton are included in the downloads available on the Cryox website to illustrate the technology and expertise available from the Lab

4. ALMA : The Atacama Large Millimetre Array. Cryostats are being made at RAL for the 66 100-ton antennae to be located 5000m above sea level in the Atacama Desert. Each cryostat houses 10 receivers mounted on quick-release cartridges cooled to 4K. ALMA represents the largest assembly of superconducting electronics ever built, and will allow astronomers to observe cold regions of the universe with unprecedented clarity

5. PLANCK : The Planck Space Mission, due for launch in 2008, will provide a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background to new levels of sensitivity, helping to answer questions of how galaxies, stars, planets and indeed the universe are formed and evolve. Planck has an extremely complex cooling chain including a 4K long-life cryocooler with Joule Thomson stage supplied by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

6. ATLAS : ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Starting later in 2008, the ATLAS detector will search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. The Higgs Boson is one of the particles expected to be discovered. Rutherford Appleton has supplied the huge ATLAS End Cap Toroids & Proximity Cryogenics

7. MICE : The Muon Ionisation Coolihg Experiment. Muons (and neutrinos) are elementary particles. MICE is a precursor to the idea of a ‘Neutrino Factory.’ MICE has three 20 litre liquid hydrogen absorbers cryocooled to less than 20K in a system of superconducting magnets and absorbers designed to focus the muon beam drawn from the ISIS particle accelerator

8. ATSR : This stands for Along Track Scanning Radiometer, a space mission made possible by the lon-life, low vibration Stirling cryocooler developed at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The slides here illustrate the results of the ATSR mission, starting with this night-time image of the English Channel, showing the temperature gradients over a range from 278 to 290K

9. Advanced Materials Engineering : there is an exceptional range of material & specifically cryogenic testing facilities at the Rutherford Appleton Labs of a kind not found commercially - established to support modelling and design of superconducting magnets and the reliable launch of cryogenic equipment in space. This capability is complemented by an additional suite of test equipment at the UK ATC

10. Superconducting Magnets : Here the slides illustrate the capability and experience at Rutherford Appleton in superconducting magnet insulation, in modelling (an expertise which has given rise to the spinout company Vector Fields) and in a range of magnets including a helical undulator and large magnets supplied to scientific facilities in Europe such as CERN

11. Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire is home to the biggest helium refrigerator in the UK, an element of the large scale cryogenic systems developed to support the Lab’s work on synchrotron light sources. The Cockcroft Institute at Daresbury is an international centre for Accelerator Science and contains a brand new ultra-high vacuum laboratory.

12. The UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh occupies a spectacular location on Blackford Hill, overlooking Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. It is co-located with The Royal Observatory which dates from. Cryogenics are fundamental to the optics, detectors and precision mechanisms employed in modern astronomy, and the UK ATC has extensive cryogenic test facilities

13. CONTACT DETAILS Rutherford Appleton Dr Tom Bradshaw, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX  +44 1235 446149  tom.bradshaw@stfc.ac.uk Daresbury Laboratory Dr Shrikant Pattalwar Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD  +44 1925 603209  shriklant.pattalwar@stfc.ac.uk shriklant.pattalwar@stfc.ac.uk The UK ATC Dr Adam Woodcraft, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ  +44 870 765 1873  alw@roe.ac.uk Cryox Ltd John Vandore, Cryox Ltd, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX  +44 1235 760562  john.vandore@stfc.ac.uk