The principle of the dilution refrigerator was suggested by Heinz London in 1952.

H. London, G.R. Clarke, and E. Mendoza proposed a prototype of continuous refrigerator in 1962.

It was realized in 1964 in the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium at Leiden University by Das, P.; Ouboter, R. B.; Taconis, K. W. (1965). A Realization of a London‐Clarke‐Mendoza Type Refrigerator. Low Temperature Physics LT9. p. 1253. (Tmin~220mK)

B.S. Neganov and co‐workers in Dubna and H.E. Hall and co‐workers in Manchester went below 100 mK (1966). Dubna rapidly reached 25 mK.

The principles and methods of dilution refrigeration were substantially developed by J. C. Wheatley et al. at the University of Illinois and the University of California at San Diego. Link to articles. Small refrigerators using copper powder heat exchangers were developed, and became available from a commercial company (S.H.E.) created by J. C. Wheatley.

Sydoriak suggested in 1968 the use of plastic heat exchangers due to the low Kapitza resistance (cited in Link to article)

Radebaugh and Siegwarth suggested in 1974 the use of sintered silver powders in low temperature heat exchangers. Link to article

Plastic heat exchangers and dilution refrigerators were developed in Grenoble by Frossati and coworkers: L. del Castillo, G. Frossati, A. Lacaze, and D. Thoulouze, Proc. LT 13, Boulder, 1972, (Plenum, New York, 1974). Vol. 4, p. 640., and later on in Leiden Link to article

Modern « wet »large refrigerators are based on CNRS‐Grenoble techniques, initiated by A. Lacaze and coworkers. The development by G. Frossati et al. of refrigerators using optimized sintered silver heat exchangers led to a long standing low temperature record with Tmin~2 mK. Link to articles

« Dry » refrigerators were developed on Pulse‐tube coolers, independently by Koike et al., K. Uhlig et al. and H. Godfrin et al. in 1999. The first commercial unit was built in Grenoble (CNRS/Air Liquide) and delivered in 2003.

The large refrigerator built in Lancaster (G.R. Pickett et al.) holds the present record of low temperatures, 1.75 mK Link to articles