Improvement of beam lifetime and vacuum system of the PF-AR

Successive improvements have been performed on the vacuum system for the Photon Factory Advanced Ring (PF-AR) at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). The main purpose is to prolong electron beam lifetime for stable operation as an intense pulsed X-ray source. In the past three years, a total of 61 sputter ion pumps (SIPs) were additionally installed, and the increased effective pumping speed amounts to 13% of total. Comparison between calculated and observed beam lifetimes indicates that the lifetime is restricted mainly by the residual gas scatterings and that improvement of the vacuum will realize still longer lifetime. Sudden beam lifetime drops caused by dust trappings have been investigated for many years. The frequency of the lifetime drops has decreased as operation time elapsed after a large-scale reconstruction. Effect of distributed ion pumps (DIPs) on the lifetime drops has also been investigated experimentally.