New applications for the world's smallest high-precision capacitance dilatometer and its stress-implementing counterpart

Abstract

We introduce a new stress dilatometer with exactly the same size and weight as the world's smallest miniature capacitance dilatometer (height x width x depth = 15 mmx14 mmx15 mm, weight: 12 g). To develop this new device, only a single part of the most recently developed mini-dilatometer, the so-called 'body', needs to be replaced. Therefore, the new mini dilatometer with an interchangeable body can be used for high-resolution measurements of thermal expansion and magnetostriction with and without large stress. We also report two novel applications of both mini-dilatometer cell types. Our new setup was installed for the first time in a cryogen-free system (PPMS DynaCool). The first new setup allows the rotation of both dilatometers in situ at any angle between -90 deg > μ > +90 deg in the temperature range from 320 K to 1.8 K. We also installed our mini-cells in a dilution refrigerator insert of a PPMS DynaCool, in which dilatometric measurements are now possible in the temperature range from 4 K to 0.06 K. Because of the limited sample space, such measurements could not be performed so far. For both new applications, we can resolve the impressive length changes to 0.01 A.