First results of the Tritium Absorption InfraRed Spectroscopy (T2ApIR) experiment

TL;DR

The T2ApIR experiment at Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe aims to systematically study the properties and phase dynamics of hydrogen isotopologues and their mixtures, including noble gases, using advanced cryogenic infrared spectroscopy techniques.

Contribution

This work introduces the T2ApIR experimental setup designed for comprehensive analysis of hydrogen isotopologues and noble gas mixtures across phases, enhancing understanding of their properties for fusion and physics applications.

Findings

Initial setup successfully reaches cryogenic temperatures below 10 K.

Capability to analyze all six hydrogen isotopologues in various phases.

Potential to investigate phase change dynamics and noble gas mixtures.

Abstract

The literature on experimentally verified material properties of tritium is sparse but information about this is crucial in fusion for pellet production (Magnetic Confined Fusion), target fueling (Inertial Confined Fusion), cryogenic distillation, as well as in astroparticle physics for neutrino experiments, and search for rare physics. To improve on this, the T$_2$ApIR experiment has been designed and built at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK), and is in its scientific commissioning phase. The main focus of this experiment is to enable the investigation of the properties of all six hydrogen isotopologues and their mixtures in the gaseous, liquid, and solid phase, as well as the dynamics of their phase changes. In addition, mixtures with noble gases such as xenon and neon can be investigated. This is achieved using a cryogenic setup capable of reaching less than 10 in a measurement cell that allows optical access for infrared absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and a polariscope setup, as well as temperature and pressure measurement.