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The first phase of the EU collaborative project on sub-kelvin thermometry, 'ULT Dissemination', is nearing completion, leading to the development of several thermometers and devices, and the instrumentation needed to disseminate the new Provisional Low Temperature Scale, PLTS-2000, to users. Principal among these are a current-sensing noise thermometer (CSNT), a CMN thermometer adapted for industrial use, a Coulomb blockade thermometer, a second-sound acoustic thermometer and a superconductive reference device SRD-1000. Several partners have set up 3 He melting-pressure thermometers to realise the PLTS-2000, and will check it using Pt-NMR, CMN and other thermometers. The scale, which was formally adopted by the Comité International des Poids et Mesures in October 2000, covers the range of temperature from 1 K down to 0.9 mK, and is defined by an equation for the melting pressure of 3 He. The SRD employs novel fabrication and detection techniques with up to 10 samples, and is expected to meet the requirement for fixed points below 1 K, formerly filled by the NIST SRM 767 and 768. Other devices included in the project are ruthenium oxide sensors and a self-contained 3 He melting pressure thermometer. This paper reviews the project progress to date and indicates the potential for research, metrological and industrial application of the devices developed.

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Recently, a superconductive reference device, SRD1000, with ten reference materials has been developed to enable simplified in situ calibration of interpolating thermometers. We report on the evaluation of SRD1000 prototypes at various laboratories. The devices were built and tested by HDL and KOL, calibrated at NMi-VSL and then distributed to other partners where they were re-calibrated against the local realisations of the PLTS-2000 or laboratory scales. As a result, we obtained data on the superconductive transition temperatures, widths and shapes for four different devices. Reproducibility, sharpness of the transitions, supercooling and sensitivity to magnetic fields are evaluated. This leads to estimates of the uncertainty in determination of the transition midpoint and temperature.

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