Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 12:44

Target contains 230 discs of UCx (material from UC2 flakes, batch#01-04062012). 

Total UCx mass (UC2 + C-grv extra + C-foil + Org.) = 38.564g

Total length = 8.0 cm

Target was previously contained with TaC and sintered;  it's wrapped with 3 layers of Ta-heat shield, including the back-block.

A regular TaC-coated endcap is inserted on one end and the other is inserted with a D-cap with two samples  (Marked sample #1 & #2).

The chamber is currently being pumped down.

 Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 19:06

IG currently at 9.1e-6 Torr, BP @ 22mTorr.  

Set TGHT auto-ramping parameters:  

Vacuum limit 5.0 e-6 Torr, (max 6.0 e-6 Torr)

rate = 0.25A/min

TGHT = 55A  

Initiated auto-ramping...

 Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 23:20

TGHT reached to 55A and stayed for about 55min.  The pressure was at 2.5e-5 Torr.

Increases TGHT auto-ramping to 175A to allow burning off most of the organic binder, and the chamber will be vented and cleaned before ramping 

up the heater to 520A.

Ramping rate set to 0.1A/min.

Monday, July 16, 2012, 09:44 

TGHT reached to 175A.  It has taken almost 6 days to burn off the organic binder. (see attachment #1).  

Auto-cool down has initiated.  The chamber will be vented with Ar gas and it will be opened for cleaning of the burn-off binder. 

 Monday, July 16, 2012, 14:20

The chamber was vented with Ar, and the target was removed for cleaning.  There was quite a bit of organic gunge filled the ionizer holder-base plate and condensation out the D-cap (as usual).

The chamber was cleaned and the target was installed back.  It's currently being pumped down.

Once the vacuum reached to 10e- Torr.  The heater will be ramped up to max 520A to finish the sintering process.

 Monday, July 16, 2012, 17:01

Pressure has reached to 9.1e-6 Torr. 

Initiated auto-heating at 1A/min.  Set TGHT = 175A.

 Monday, July 16, 2012, 20:00

TGHt reached to 175A.  Pressure stable at 2.2e-5 Torr.  

Increase target heater to 520A; autoramping at 0.1A/min. 

 Thursday, July 19, 2012, 10:27

TGHT reached to 520A, 5.47V (local 516A, 5.36V) and has stayed for about 4 hours.  IG1 = 9.58e-6 Torr and coming down.  BP=29mTorr.

Thursday, July 19, 2012, 10:29

Auto-cooling down in process...  2A/min for TGHT --> 0A.

 Thursday, July 19, 2012, 16:52

The chamber was vented with Ar gas, and the target was transported to the Ar-glove box. 

The samples were removed from the target.

A new TaC-sintered end-cap was inserted.

The target looks good!

Total time for the conditioning process = 9 days.

See attachment#2 for the overall heating/pressure curves.