Miller receives $1M NASA award for Vanadium Superconducting Heat Switch project

Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Franklin Miller recently received funding from NASA for his ‘Vanadium Superconducting Heat Switch for Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigeration’ project. The project period is September 2024 – August 2027 and the total award amount is $1,002,100, with $826K coming to UW-Madison.

Many future discoveries in astrophysics will be enabled by space flight photon detectors cooled to temperatures within 50 milliKelvin (0.05 Kelvin) of absolute zero, (0 Kelvin). These detectors will enable; the discovery of earth-like planets orbiting distant stars, a more complete understanding of the physics of the evolution of the early universe, and investigations into the nature of dark matter. These detectors will be cooled by state-of-the-art Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerators (CADRs).   

The main inefficiency in the current CADRs is the superconducting heat switch used to thermally disconnect the 50 milliKelvin cooling stage from higher temperatures during operation. Lead is currently the standard material used for superconducting heat switches in these systems. Research on other potential superconducting materials has shown that Vanadium could have an on state to off state heat conduction ratio more than 10 times better than Lead when used in these heat switches. The improved thermodynamic system efficiency associated with the increased switching ratio will reduce the required mass of these space flight magnetic cooling systems by more than 30 percent. However, to fully realize this advantage, Vanadium needs to be extremely pure. This project will focus on developing a method to purify Vanadium foils, testing the material’s performance after purification, and developing and testing prototypes of these Vanadium-based heat switches for their performance in terms of the on state to off state heat conduction ratio.

Featured image: Former student Chloe Gunderson and Franklin Miller in the lab.

>> Learn more about Professor Miller’s research via his faculty video.

Mechanical Engineering Research – Franklin Miller

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