Introduction to cryogenics

This paper aims at introducing cryogenics to non-specialists. It is not a cryogenics course, for which there exists several excellent textbooks mentioned in the bibliography. Rather, it tries to convey in a synthetic form the essential features of cryogenic engineering and to raise awareness on key design and construction issues of cryogenic devices and systems. The presentation of basic processes, implementation techniques and typical values for physical and engineering parameters is illustrated by applications to helium cryogenics.