Equipment: MRI: Acquisition of Helium Recovery Equipment for Quantum Science at the University of Wyoming

About This Grant

This Major Research Instrumentation requests a liquid helium recovery (LHeR) system to be installed at the University of Wyoming (UW). The system will be used to recover helium gas and supply liquid helium to multiple low-temperature laboratories in the Physical Sciences Building, housing the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry. Helium is in high global demand as the only viable coolant for numerous medical, technological and advanced research applications. This non-renewable resource is difficult to handle, store and transport. Helium is unrecoverable when released into the atmosphere and strategic reserves are shrinking. Recently, the uncertain fate of the federal helium reserve has negatively impacted the helium supply chain and price. UW is relatively geographically isolated and was historically a small consumer of helium, placing it at the front line of the impacted groups. The LHeR system supported by this project provides a sustainable liquid helium supply for scientific research in quantum information science and condensed matter physics at UW. This equipment is also facilitating a parallel educational program in cryogenic engineering (including safe liquid helium handling and low temperature instrumentation design), thus providing valuable opportunities to train both technical and academic workforces. This project delivers a LHeR system with the ability to consistently produce 50 L/day of liquid helium, recovering a targeted minimum of 80% of this volume. The system comprises a gas recovery balloon, pressurized storage capacity, purification and liquefying systems. Helium gas is principally supplied to the recovery network as boil-off from cryostats situated in multiple low-temperature laboratories. The gas storage capacity is equivalent to 198 liters of liquid helium. Each of the two Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers is capable of producing 25 liquid liters per day and can operate independently to eliminate system downtime during maintenance. Five 100-liter low-loss transport dewars are available to distribute liquid helium among the laboratories. The LHeR enables deep cryogenic research in topological quantum materials (Weyl semimetals and exotic superconductors), quantum information science (including architectures for superconducting, magnetic, hybrid and topological qubits), and quantum magnetism (nanoskyrmions and 2D magnetic domains). In particular, the reliability of the helium supply permits long-term spectroscopic characterizations of sensitive low-dimensional heterostructures which were previously unfeasible. This project is jointly funded by the NSF's Division of Materials Research (DMR), and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.