Development and testing of 140 GHz absorber coatings for the water baffle of W7-X cryopumps

Due to the relatively high strayfield radiation (140 GHz) from the electron cyclotron radio frequency heating system to which the W7-X cryopumps are expected to be subjected, coating systems acting as an efficient absorber for 140 GHz radiation have been developed for the water-cooled baffle shield in order to reduce the thermal load on the liquid N shield and the liquid He cryopanel.Several types of oxide ceramic coatings were applied on planar copper substrates by Atmospheric Plasma Spraying. The influence of the process parameters on the coating properties and microwave absorbing capability was analysed. It was found that film thickness and microstructure of the sprayed coatings have a significant influence on microwave absorption behaviour. For Al2O3/TiO2 coatings, absorption values over 90% were obtained for the 140 GHz probing beam.After optimisation of the coating structure for maximum microwave absorption, the coating procedure was adapted by special robot trajectories to the complex water baffle geometry. The selected spray parameters and kinematics were then used for the complete coating of four mock-ups, which have been tested in the W7-X strayfield test facility Mistral. The mock-ups showed absorption values of 75%.