Use of a quartz resonator of the tuning fork type as a thermometer in a dilution refrigerator

Abstract

The temperature dependences of the resonance frequency and resonance width of a tuning-fork-type quartz resonator, which is placed directly in the dilution chamber of a refrigerator, were measured in order to test the possibility of using it as a secondary thermometer under such conditions. Measurements were performed both in the upper and lower phases of a stratified solution of 3He in 4He in the temperature range 15–350 mK. The dependences obtained indicate that the parameters of resonators depend on not only the temperature, thus making it problematic to use them for thermometry in a cryostat’s dilution chamber.