Thin film getter coatings for the GSI heavy-ion synchrotron upgrade

For the future project the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI, an accelerator system with a base pressure of 10−10 Pa is required. The low pressure is needed to reduce the charge exchange rate between the accelerated ions and the residual gas molecules and therefore to increase the ion beam lifetime. Among the different measures undertaken to upgrade the existing UHV system, the installation of non-evaporable getter (NEG)-coated dipole and quadrupole chambers is foreseen. For this purpose a licence agreement for the non-evaporable thin film getters was signed between GSI and CERN in the end of June 2005.A new dedicated magnetron sputtering facility was designed and commissioned at GSI to perform the Ti–Zr–V coating on the dipole chambers of the heavy-ion synchrotron (SIS 18).Those pipes, made from stainless steel, have an elliptical cross section, are 3 m long, and are characterised by a wall thickness of 0.3 mm and a 15° bending angle.The characterisation of the thin films produced has been carried out by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) for the chemical composition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the morphology, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for the activation behaviour.The coating facility, its operating mode, and the first results obtained on the NEG characterisation by means of the different techniques will be described.