Abstract
An apparatus for measuring specific heat capacity of solids from liquid-helium temperature 4.2K up to ∼200K has been constructed. For the measurement, the thermal relaxation method was adopted, instead of the conventional Nernst, pulse heating, or ac methods. When the present method is compared with other ones, the advantages are: small amount of sample required, relatively short measuring time, easy operation, and relatively high accuracy of measurement. The minimum amount and dimensions of sample are typically about 30mg and 100μm thick, 10mm in diameter. The measuring time for each measurement is as short as 3min. Experimental results for sapphire and KBr single crystals are shown, and their agreements with the existing data are excellent. As an example of polymer, the specific heat capacity of polyethylene has been measured, and the preliminary data are presented.
