This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Granted funds will support development of a cryostat capable of full vector magnetic remanence measurements in magnetic minerals to low temperatures (range 25 to 350 K). The cryostat design would mate to standard 2-G Enterprises RF and DC SQUID rock magnetometers. Research application of the developed cryostat is likely to result in new techniques for determination of phase specific low temperature magnetic behavior of ferromagnetic minerals in rocks, sediments, meteorites and synthetic magnetic media, the development of new rock magnetic proxies of past environmental conditions, and industrial applications may result in the development of improved magnetic media devices. The proposed cryostat design involves a collaboration between the University of Minnesota and a U.S. cryogenic device manufacturer (ColdEdge Technologies). The grant supports two early career scientists.
