Progress of the 4 K-class Vuilleumier type cryocooler and its further applications

Abstract Vuilleumier cycle was first patented in 1918. It was usually regard as the thermal-driven Stirling refrigeration cycle, which combined the low-frequency working pattern like Giffod-Mcmahon (GM) cryocooler and the compactness of Stirling-type cryocooler. With the continuous development in the past 100 years, the Vuilleumier-type (VM-type) cryocoolers have to been proved to generate cooling power from ambient temperature to liquid nitrogen temperature and even to liquid helium temperature. In recent decades, some efforts were made on traditional displacer-type VM cryocooler, Vuilleumier hybrid pulse tube cryocooler (VM-HPTC) and the VM-type pulse tube cryocooler (VM-type PTC) to obtain the liquid helium temperature. Successfully, not only the 4 K was obtained, but also the limit temperature of oscillating cryocooler by He4 was hit. This paper presents the progress of the 4 K-class VM-type cryocooler and analyzed the possible applications of 4 K class VM-type cryocooler.