A new test stand for heavy ion induced gas desorption measurements at TSL

In several experiments at CERN, GSI and BNL it has been found that the lifetime of highly energetic heavy ions in synchrotrons decreases with increasing number of injected ions. This phenomenon occurs due to the collisions of beam ions and residual gas molecules leading to the change of charge of the ions and their loss on the vacuum chamber walls, which in turn cause ion-induced gas desorption and further pressure increase. To gain a deeper understanding of the ion-induced desorption process in the energy range 5–45 MeV/u, a dedicated test stand was built at the end of the K beamline at The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) in Uppsala, Sweden. The energy range was chosen due to the fact that the injection energy of the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18 at GSI will be 10 MeV/u, and that there are insufficient data in this energy range. A Test Particle Monte-Carlo model of the experimental set-up was build-up, run and analysed for different sample configurations. An important result is that for the same sample material the desorption yield from a flat sample causes a 1.58 times larger pressure increase than that of a tubular sample. A detailed explanation of the set-up is presented.