Adiabatic demagnetization apparatus for nuclear orientation

A cryostat has been built for cooling specimens to temperatures of the order of a hundredth of a Kelvin by thermal contact with an adiabatically demagnetized paramagnetic salt pill. The apparatus was designed for performing nuclear orientation experiments. This thesis describes the construction of the apparatus and experimental tests studying the nuclear orientation of (60)Co in an iron plate. The paramagnetic salt used was chromium potassium alum in an alum-glycerine slurry. In addition to the chrome alum pill a guard pill of manganous ammonium sulphate was used between the alum pill and the 1K helium bath. The pills were supported and thermally isolated by German silver spacers. A copper heat link was embedded in the alum-glycerine slurry and soldered to the specimen to provide thermal contact. Several heat links were used ranging from a bundle of five thousand copper wires to a copper foil "concertina" arrangement. A Ventron niobium-titanium superconducting solenoid which produced fields up to 48 kilogauss was used for the magnetic cooling. A superconducting polarizing solenoid was used to magnetically saturate the polycrystalline iron plate. Anisotropies in the gamma radiation intensity from (60)Co of 7 to 11 per cent corresponding to temperatures of 37 to 45 m K were observed.Science, Faculty ofPhysics and Astronomy, Department ofGraduat