Thermal contacts between metal and glass for use at cryogenic temperatures
Thermal contacts designed to cool a 50-cm diam fused-silica mirror to 5 K without serious distortion of the optical surfaces were tested. Rubber cement and copper-filled rubber cement were found to be well suited for maintaining thermal contact between the fused-silica and copper straps. A variety of other adhesives proved to be unreliable because they spalled the glass. The thermal resistances of the rubber cement and copper-filled rubber cement were determined. For the copper-filled rubber cement, the thermal resistances varied from 570 K/W at 60 K to 15,000 K/W at 10 K.