High-capacity 60 K single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocoolers

A high-capacity single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocooler operating at around 60 K has been developed to provide the appropriate cooling for the next-generation very-large-scale long wave infrared focal plane arrays under development. The application background and cooler design process are described, and the performance characteristics are presented. At present, the cooler typically provides 4.06 W at 60 K with the input power of 180 W at 300 K reject temperature. 4.72 W can also be achieved when the input power increases to 200 W, and over 9.4% of Carnot efficiency at 60 K has been realized. The larger pulse tube diameter of 14.2 mm is used and the evident orientation sensitivity is observed in the range of 55–65 Hz. The experiments also observe the obvious reject temperature dependence.

► A high-capacity 60 K single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocooler has been developed. ► It typically provides 4.06 W at 60 K with 180 W input at 300 K reject temperature. ► Over 9.4% of Carnot efficiency at 60 K has been realized. ► We use a 14.2 mm pulse tube diameter and observe evident orientation sensitivity. ► The cooler has the potential to cool the very-large-scale focal plane arrays.