Miniature J-T cryocooler using argon and nitrous oxide mixture

Miniature J-T cryocooler using nitrogen or argon has been widely adopted in cooling infrared sensor for space/military application and cryosurgery. Argon or nitrogen, however, has relatively low specific cooling power compared to nitrous oxide, but the ultimate operating temperature is much lower than nitrous oxide. On the other hand, nitrous oxide has large specific cooling power, but the operating temperature is limited to its boiling point (>183K). To compromise the different characteristics of these gases, the performance of miniature J-T cryocooler using argon and nitrous oxide mixture is investigated in this paper. Three different compositions of mixture (25/75, 50/50, and 75/25 molar fraction) are blended and tested. The results are compared with the experiments of pure argon and pure nitrous oxide. The experimental results show some encouraging potentiality of mixed refrigerant J-T cryocooler. The critical clogging problem, however, was observed with argon and nitrous oxide mixture, and the lowest achievable temperature with this mixture was limited to the freezing point of nitrous oxide. The paper discusses detailed clogging process of the mixture and suggests an alternative.