INSITU CONDITIONING FOR PROTON STORAGE RING VACUUM-SYSTEMS

Average pressure and vacuum-stability limit as expected in the presence of a proton beam were measured after in situ treatments such as bakeout under various conditions, argon glow-discharge cleaning and sputter deposition of titanium. Measurements were carried out for test pipes made of stainless steel (untreated, electropolished, or cooled to 77 K), pure titanium and aluminum alloy. The measurement method used to obtain the vacuum-stability limit in the laboratory and in a prototype system is described. The results can be applied also to other systems of different geometry by use of scaling laws. In situ conditioning generally has a stronger influence on vacuum performance than a particular choice of material. Bakeout gives low average pressures and rather good vacuum stability. Glow discharges also increase the vacuum stability but have only a small effect on the static pressure. Coating the beam-pipe wall with titanium by in situ sputtering provides large linear pumping, thus a lower pressure and an extremely good vacuum stability.