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How to Measure the Thermal Expansion Coefficient at Low Temperatures

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Thermal Properties of Solids at Room and Cryogenic Temperatures

Part of the book series: International Cryogenics Monograph Series ((ICMS))

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Abstract

Thermal expansion measurements in the high temperature range have been thoroughly explored, and various experimental methods are available even as commercial instrumentation, measurements at cryogenic temperatures have been confined to the field of high-precision laboratory experiments, needing large experimental efforts and expenses, and often also suffering from intrinsic limitations. All techniques used for the measurements of thermal expansion can be divided into two categories, namely: absolute methods and relative methods. While in the former the linear changes of dimension of the sample are directly measured at various temperature, in the latter the coefficient of thermal expansion is determined through comparison with a reference materials of known thermal expansion. A lot of experimental set-ups are described in Sect. 2.1, while Sect. 2.2 some examples of measurements performed at very low temperatures are listed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INFN, Rome, Italy

    Guglielmo Ventura

  2. Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    Mauro Perfetti

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  1. Guglielmo Ventura
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  2. Mauro Perfetti
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Correspondence to Guglielmo Ventura .

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Ventura, G., Perfetti, M. (2014). How to Measure the Thermal Expansion Coefficient at Low Temperatures. In: Thermal Properties of Solids at Room and Cryogenic Temperatures. International Cryogenics Monograph Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8969-1_5

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