Wed May 18 13:12:24 2011:  Target is wrapped with 3 Ta-heat shields and is installed in the evaporator which is being pumped down.

Wed May 18 23:11:42 2011:  TGHT was raised to 40A and held for about 6 hours; Vac gradually came down to 2.1e-6 Torr.  TGHT increased to 90A and pressure is going up, currently vac @ 2.9 e-5 Torr.  Auto heating will begin soon at 0.5A/min --> 820A.  

Thu May 19 10:23:34 2011:  TGHT at 92A/0.32V, vac @ 4.47 e-5 torr.  (See Attachment#1: heating_past_12hrs)

Tue May 24 10:22:59 2011:  TGHT reached to max currrent 820A and held for over the long weekend.  The cooling process began at 15:00 yesterday.  Evaporator is vented.  P/S off.

Mon May 30 17:03:01 2011

The end caps of the target after the sintering process were found damage; the caps were vaporized just like the previous SiC target w.o#38481-8.  (See attachments#2: SiC000-003).  After some investigation, it looks like some reaction had occurred when the target heater was ramped up beyond 550A.  (See Attachment#3: SiC_striptool).

The yellow solid will be analyzed using EDX/SEM.  More details will be posted later....

Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 10:16 

SEM/EDX were done.  See attachment #9 for the EDX results. 

The formation of the yellow solid is the condensation of silicon.  As seen on the EDX results, the solid is mainly Si, C and some trace of Al (could be from the loading rod).  

The new D-end cap has be used to allow a better out-gassing.