Sapphire screws and strength test on them at liquid nitrogen temperature.

We fabricated several sapphire screw threads and performed a strength test on them at the liquid nitrogen temperature of 77 K. The screw threads were subjected to and withstood a 3000 N load. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first strength test of sapphire screw threads at a cryogenic temperature. The result suggests a new way of connecting sapphire components. Although sapphire is already used in many applications, the result may provide a new way to use the material as a structural element in even more applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]