I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:20:55 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:20:55 GMT

@nblr The more modern brother of this thing can go from 1.8K up to 400K with ease, and the magnetometry option includes an oven (or rather heated sample holder) giving you a high temperature range between 300K and 1000K. This old one also has an oven insert, but it works differently and is cumbersome to use.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:15:13 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:15:13 GMT

@nblr I think officially it's around 2.3K up to 400K but with caveats. I usually never go below 4.5K because this is a first generation device (originally released to market in 1984) and the cooling power/reliability down there is iffy. Similarly, I rarely go above 300 or 350K due to the additional helium boiloff it causes (imperfect insulation between cooling annulus and helium bath). Going from 5K to 300K for temperature dependent measurements is usually my standard thing.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:09:36 GMT

nblr@chaos.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:09:36 GMT

@StripeyYena Ah! Right… Sorry for being so nosy, but what’s the temperature range of the device?

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:05:08 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:05:08 GMT

@nblr And also useful for any kind of basic research you might want to do if you need to know the general magnetic character of a sample or want to know at which temperature it has a phase transition etc. It's a rather commonly encountered method of characterization if magnetism is your thing.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:55:10 GMT

nblr@chaos.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:55:10 GMT

@StripeyYena Ah! …so mostly for
Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik purposes.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:53:59 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:53:59 GMT

@nblr It doesn't measure the field but the magnetic moment of a sample, which you can then tell the chemist or material scientist who made it, which could in turn lead to the creation of a new catalyst, rare-earth-free magnet, or material suitable for magnetic cooling, for example.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:13:40 GMT

nblr@chaos.social — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:13:40 GMT

@StripeyYena What's the practical application? I mean… When would one need to measure a magnetic field with such high precision?

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:59:11 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:59:11 GMT

@prema There are two 9T DynaCool in the lab where I'm mainly at, a different part of campus has a 9T EverCool, while two 14T DynaCool have been successfully obtained in terms of "DFG says yes, administration/ministry say blah blah". Still have to wait for the final OK there...

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:53:34 GMT

prema@hachyderm.io — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:53:34 GMT

@StripeyYena very nice! how many Teslas?

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:04:52 GMT

professeurrenard@pawb.fun — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:04:52 GMT

@StripeyYena Sorry for your troubles, mate.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:42:16 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:42:16 GMT

@prema Ohh, a classic PPMS! Never seen one of those in the flesh, but we'll probably have four DynaCool on our part of campus... xD

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:31:02 GMT

prema@hachyderm.io — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:31:02 GMT

@StripeyYena clean lab, for comparison:

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:13:59 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:13:59 GMT

@SRLevine *siphons them back aggressively*

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:13:29 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:13:29 GMT

Indeed, only my pet project keeps soldiering on at the moment. But, with other important measurements pending, I'd be willing to give up some of my helium. Though with both my group leader and the person who'd do those measurements currently on vacation, I'm slowly past caring, for the sake of my mental health. I can't take care of every single thing around here.

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:09:43 GMT

stripeyyena@chaosfurs.social — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:09:43 GMT

@penguin42 It's also not quite cold enough, though...

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:08:41 GMT

penguin42@mastodon.org.uk — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:08:41 GMT

@StripeyYena Liquid hydrogen it is then - what could go wrong?

Reply to I've been unofficially told that Qatar has completely stopped shipping liquid helium, which means that 80% of our vendor's supply is gone. on Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:05:33 GMT

srlevine@neuromatch.social — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:05:33 GMT

@StripeyYena oooh, boy. I don't do any fills myself obviously, but I really, really hope our newer NMRs have been filled recently. We also supposedly have one on order for the new building, and while I wouldn't have planned to use it regularly, I can't see that installation happening if they can't get enough He for the initial cool down... (which effects me in that current users of my preferred instrument won't be partially siphoned off elsewhere)