TRAP—a cryo-pump for pumping tritium on pre-condensed argon

The TRitium Argon frost Pump experiment (TRAP) has been built at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) as a test rig for the Cryogenic Pumping Section (CPS) of the KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN). TRAP employs a heterogeneous layer of pre-condensed argon to adsorb hydrogen isotopes at ∼4.2K. This article covers the technical setup of the TRAP experiment and presents first results obtained in a commissioning run with deuterium.