Rare-Earth-Free Materials Improve Cryocooler Performance Near 4 K
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Published October 20, 2026.
Researchers have tested a combination of materials without rare-earth elements that improves cooling capacity near 4 kelvin. Noriki Terada and colleagues reported the work in Communications Materials on October 7, 2026, in an accepted article released ahead of final editing.
The team combined manganese niobate–tantalate with a copper–iron–aluminum oxide in a regenerator for a Gifford–McMahon cryocooler. The materials have complementary heat-capacity peaks, helping the regenerator operate across its temperature range.
At 4.2 K, the combination increased cooling capacity by approximately 40% compared with the copper–iron–aluminum oxide approach alone. It achieved more than 70% of the performance of the benchmark rare-earth material HoCu2. Numerical simulations supported the proposed contribution of the materials’ thermal properties.
The result offers a potential route to reducing heavy rare-earth use in equipment relevant to MRI and quantum technologies. However, the tested alternative still fell short of the benchmark. These are cryogenic refrigeration results: the study does not demonstrate improved preservation or recovery of biological tissues.
Source: Terada and colleagues, Communications Materials, October 7, 2026.