The Department of Physics at Christopher Newport College will establish a laboratory for the measurement of the thermal properties of materials at low temperatures. The aim of the project is twofold. It will provide industrial-quality equipment with which seniors can design the system, giving them critical experience with the principles taught in their digital electronics courses. Furthermore, by using this system, students will investigate experimentally the low temperature phenomena that they have studied in their fundamental courses in thermodynamics, modern physics and solid state. The requested equipment includes a temperature controller, digital meters and current sources, and a diffusion pump. The equipment will be used in conjunction with a closed-cycle helium refrigerator the department already owns. With the automated system students will measure resistivity and specific heat in the temperature range of 10-300 Kelvin.
