Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation, operates large-scale science national infrastructure in the UK in support of the UK academic and business research community, in addition to funding research into astronomy and particle physics. This response is made on behalf of STFC’s National Laboratories which include the ISIS Neutron and Muon source, RAL Space and Central Laser Facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire and the Hartree Centre in Daresbury. 2,500 people are employed to build and operate the facilities at the National Laboratories across STFC’s sites in Daresbury in the North West, Harwell in Oxfordshire, Edinburgh and Boulby in the North East.

Expertise and Products

As part of the UK’s national labs, STFC undertakes a range of activities in cryogenics and low temperature physics. These include cryogenics for superconducting radio frequency systems for particle accelerators and detectors for nuclear physics at the Daresbury Laboratory, ULT sample environments at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, space-based cryocooler systems and superconducting magnets at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and cryogenic receivers for astronomy at UKATC.

Recent Works and References

  • May, A. J., et al. “Commissioning and cryogenic performance of the UKRI STFC Daresbury Vertical Test Facility for jacketed SRF cavities.” IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. Vol. 1240. No. 1. IOP Publishing, 2022.
  • Lawson, C. R., et al. “Neutron imaging of an operational dilution refrigerator.” Scientific Reports 12.1 (2022): 1130.
  • Kirichek, O., et al. “Cryogen free sample environment for neutron scattering experiments at ISIS.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Vol. 340. No. 1. IOP Publishing, 2012.
  • Hills, M. J., et al. “A compact 4 K cooling system for superconducting nanowire single photon detectors.” IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. Vol. 502. No. 1. IOP Publishing, 2019.
  • Cabral, Alexandre, et al. “MOONS, the next ESO VLT’s multi-object spectrograph: the field corrector and the rotating front end.” Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII. Vol. 11447. SPIE, 2020.