The world's smallest capacitive dilatometer, for high-resolution thermal expansion and magnetostriction in high magnetic fields

For the characterization of novel quantum phases of matter, it is often required to study materials under multi-extreme conditions, in particular down to very low temperatures and in very high magnetic fields. We developed the world's smallest high-resolution capacitive dilatometer suitable for temperatures down to 10mK and usage in high magnetic fields up to 37.5 T. Despite the extreme miniaturization, the capacitive dilatometer can resolve length changes down to 0.01 angstrom. This is an unprecedented resolution in a capacitive dilatometer of this compact size. Many cryogenic devices have limited space. Due to the extremely reduced cell size (3 cm(3), 12 g), implementation or new applications in many of these sample space lacking devices are now possible. As an important example, the minute device can now be rotated in any standard cryostat, including dilution refrigerators or the commercial physical property measurement system. The present super compact design provides also for high resolution thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements in a 15.2 mm diameter tube, enabling its use in the 32 mm bore, 37.5 T Bitter magnet at the High Field Magnet Laboratory in Nijmegen down to a temperature of 300 mK. Published by AIP Publishing