The thermometric properties of MODEL RS-11 Chinese carbon resistors at low temperatures and in magnetic fields

The resistance‐temperature relationship and self‐heating characteristics of encapsulated RS‐11 carbon resistors from the People’s Republic of China demonstrate their suitability as thermometers for the temperature range 1–30 K. A simple interpolation method for them is accurate to 10 mK while polynomial fitting will give 1‐mK precision. At 20 K their stability over 30 thermal cycles is typically of the order of 0.1 K, superior to commercially available cryogenic carbon resistance thermometers although inferior to carbon‐glass thermometers. These resistors are useful in magnetic fields. At 4.2 K at field intensities up to 10 T, their magnetic field‐dependent temperature error is no greater than 5%, and they show no orientation effect.