The High B/T Facility is located in the third Bay of the Microkelvin Laboratory at the University of Florida. The University of Florida provided funds for constructing the building that consisted of three separate bays. The completion of the third bay as a high capacity nuclear refrigerator was part of the NHMFL proposal in 1990. The Facility was completed for user operation in 1994-95.

Ultra-quiet environment:
Each bay is designed to provide an ultra-quiet environment through “tempest” quality electromagnetic shielding and advanced vibration–isolation systems. Each cryostat is supported by concrete tripods whose feet are anchored in 5-ton bocks sitting in beds of compacted sand.

The refrigerator:
Unlike the two other cryostats in the Microkelvin Laboratory, the refrigerator is equipped with a 5-mole PrNi₅ nuclear demagnetization stage. The combination of a large circulation refrigeration (Oxford 700) and the PrNi₅ stage provides much higher cooling capacity than the copper refrigerators but at the price a much higher base temperature (~250 µK) because of the nuclear ordering in PrNi₅.

The magnet System:
The magnet system consists of three interconnected superconducting magnets,

1. An 8 T magnet for the nuclear demagnetization
2. A 15-17 T magnet for the experimental region
3. A shielding system that holds the field constant in the experimental region (to within 100 ppm) during demagnetization.

Turnaround Time:
Unlike conventional nuclear cooling refrigerators, the dewar can be dropped while the magnet system is kept at 4 Kelvin. Bay3’s newly developed system not only reduce turnaround time drastically, but also saves helium consumption during sample change or repair.

Helium bath levels in all bays are monitored continuously via Cryonet. According to these monitored levels, helium is supplied to the researchers by the UF Cryogenic Services for their convenience.