An Economical and Efficient Helium Recovery System for Vibration-Sensitive Applications

We present the design of a helium liquefaction system tailored to efficiently recover helium vapor from either an individual or a small cluster of vibration-sensitive cryogenic instruments. This design prioritizes a compact footprint, mitigating potential contamination sources such as gas bags and oil-lubricated compressors while maximizing the recovery rate by capturing both the boil-offs during normal operation and the refilling process of the bath cryostat. We demonstrated its performance by applying it to a commercial low-temperature scanning probe microscope. It features a >94% recovery rate and induces negligible vibrational noise to the microscope. Due to its adaptability, affordability, compact size, and suitability for homemade setups, we foresee that our design can be utilized across a wide range of experimental measurements where liquid helium is used as the cryogen.