Superconductivity News Forum (SNF)
December 23, 2014 (HE95). The German Workshop „Kryoelektronische Bauelemente“ (Cryoelectronic Components, acronym KRYO) is held annually in the autumn season. This year it was organized by the Department of Cryophysics and Spectrometry of the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany’s national metrology institute. The meeting was held on Sept. 21 - 23 in the Hotel Müggelsee (Photo 1) situated on a picturesque lake in the suburban south-eastern Berlin. More than 75 scientists, engineers, technicians and students coming from universities, academic institutes and companies participated in the workshop and discussed recent research activities and projects.
Photo 1. Hotel Müggelsee
It became a tradition to spend the first day of the KRYO on tutorials discussing current research topics of the hosting organization. So, this year’s meeting started with an introduction to SQUID basics provided by Dietmar Drung (PTB). It was followed by tutorials on SQUID-based low-field NMR and biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles. These tutorials on novel biomedical diagnostic techniques were presented by Rainer Körber (Magnicon GmbH) and Frank Wiekhorst (PTB). Another application of SQUIDs in metrology is thermometry at low and very low temperature. Alexander Kirste (PTB) gave a tutorial on this application. After introducing thermometer types and the low-temperature scale PLTS 2000, he discussed SQUID-based noise thermometers, such as the magnetic field fluctuation thermometer.
The 15 talks presented in oral sessions dealt with SQUIDs and SQUID applications, superconducting radiation detectors, Josephson junctions and related devices, and also superconducting resonators. Photo 2 shows one of the sessions.
Photo 2. Conference room when Friedrich Wulschner (WMI) gave his talk
A poster session with 26 contributions and a small exhibition of products from five cryogenic companies were a good platform for detailed discussions. Photo 3 shows snapshots from the poster session. The oral program of the Workshop is accessible.
Photo 3. Poster Session
A number of participants took the opportunity to visit PTB’s synchrotron radiation facility with the electron storage ring Metrology Light Source in Berlin-Adlershof where the organizers offered a lab tour at the end of the conference.
Overall, the meeting was attended by 77 participants, among them 2 from abroad. Photo 4 shows the whole attendees’ group. In contrast to several past KRYO meetings, no foreign presentations have been given. All tutorials and oral presentations were in English.
Photo 4. Participant's group photo
The next KRYO Workshop in 2015 will be organized by Professor Meinhard Schilling’s group from Technical University Braunschweig. It will be held on Sept. 27 – 29 2015 at Castle Warberg in the Harz Mountains (for detailed info see www.emg.ing.tu-bs.de/kryo.html). Photo 5 shows Prof. Schilling announcing the KRYO 2015.
Photo 5. Meinhard Schilling announces KRYO 2015
Thomas Schurig
Chair of Kryo 2014