A new generation of 3He refrigerators

The characteristics and performance of a new class of 3He refrigerators are discussed. We introduce a 3He refrigerator, which allows a temperature of 296 m K to be reached with a starting point of 4.2 K, without pumping on the main 4He bath. The operating principle is based on the single-expansion helium liquefier: gas cooling by isothermal compression and adiabatic expansion.