Neutron irradiation tests of calibrated cryogenic sensors at low temperatures

This paper presents the advancement of a program being carried in view of selecting the cryogenic temperature sensors to be used in the LHC accelerator. About 10,000 sensors will be installed around the 26.6 km LHC ring, and most of them will be exposed to high radiation doses during the accelerator lifetime. The following thermometric sensors : carbon resistors, thin films, and Pt, are exposed to high neutron fluences (> 10(15) n/cm(2)) at the ISN (Grenoble, France) Cryogenic Irradiation Test Facility in which a cryostat is placed in a shielded irradiation vault where a 20 MeV deuteron beam hits a Be target resulting in a well collimated and intense neutron beam. The cryostat, the on-line acquisition system, the temperature references and the main characteristics of the irradiation facility are described. The main interest of this set-up is its ability to monitor on-line the evolution of the sensors by comparing its readout with temperature references that are in principle insensitive to the neutron radiation (i.e. Argon gas bulbs when working at about 84 K, and below 4.5 K, either helium gas bulbs or the saturation pressure of the superfluid liquid helium bath). The resistance shifts of the different sensors at liquid helium temperatures are presented.