Cryogenic sample environment on TOSCA

Abstract

We have developed a new top-loading cryogenic insert that forms part of the integrated cryogenic sample environment for the Tosca spectrometer at the ISIS Facility. New advanced cryo-coolers and optimised design of the cryogenic insert allowed us to dramatically decrease system cool down time from 20 to 7 hours, sample cooling time from 3 hours to 45 minutes and also reduce the base temperature of the insert from 12 K to 4.5 K in the continuous regime and ~1.5 K in the single shot regime. We have also reduced the number of cold heads from three to two. This lets us save the significant cost of the third cold head maintenance and has cut electricity consumption by ~30%. A much lower base temperature of 4.5 K has opened new opportunities for molecular spectroscopy studies on Tosca.