Laura Lambert wrote:

Thursday, August 01, 2013, 16:16 The target container was previously coated with TaC and sintered in Evap 2. The target is loaded with 210 discs of UCx (material from batch # 04 - 05032013) Total length = 7.2cm The container is wrapped with 3 layers of Ta-heat shield, including the back block. A regular TaC coated / sintered endcap is inserted on left, wrt the ionizer tube pointing out of the page. The right end is open with no cap. The chamber is pumping down. Instructions for conditioning the UCx target: 1. TGHT will need to heat up to ~ 175A to burn off the organics.     Parameter setup: 5.0e-5 good vac, 6.0e-5 bad vac. The auto-ramping rate is set to 0.1A/min. 2. Once the organics have burnt off, ramp down the TGHT to 0A at 2A/min. 3. Purge the glovebox with argon gas. 4. Vent the chamber with Ar gas. Close the valve when it is completely vented. 5. Remove the target. Be careful the left end (view from the top) is open with the D-cap. 6. Clean the chamber with TCE and remove all the gunge. 7. Install the target back 8. Pump down the chamber to at least low 10e-6 Torr before begin the final carbonization process. 9. Auto-ramp the TGHT current to 175A at 1A/min. 10. Once the TGHT reach to 175A. Auto-ramp TGHT to 520A at 0.1A/min. 11. At 520A, keep heating the target for at least 4-5 hours. 12. Auto ramp TGHT to 0A at 2A/min. 13. Purge the glovebox with argon for at least 5 min. 14. Vent the chamber with argon gas. Close the valve when it is completely vented. 15. Remove the target from the chamber and put in the "orange james bond box" and transport to the Ar-glove box. Done!

 Monday, August 05, 2013, 07:51

Chamber has been pumped down over the weekend.  IG1 currently at 2.65e-6 Torr,

Stepped up TGHT to 20A. 

Monday, August 05, 2013, 08:01  

Vacuum seems stable.  

Initiated auto-ramping for TGHT to reach 175A at 1A/min. 

 Sunday, August 11, 2013, 21:23

TGHT has reached to 175A; target has heated at that current for ~28hours.  

Vacuum is currently at 2.9e-6 Torr, BP @ 31mTorr. 

Cooling target down to 0A at 2A/min. 

The chamber will be vented in Ar tomorrow for cleaning. 

 Monday, August 12, 2013, 17:37 (Interesting day....Close call )

Early this morning, the target was removed from the chamber.  As it was transferred to the "orange" seal-box, half the length of the UCx discs fell out from the opening end of the container. 

The discs and the target were transferred to the Ar-glove box.  Tried to fill back the discs but only a few could get in; most of the discs were cracked;

Used the recently prepared UC flakes from Batch#5-18062013 to fill up the target. 

Total length remained the same ~7.2 cm.

The chamber was cleaned;

The target is now installed back in the chamber, and it's currently being pumped down.

The right end remains open (wrt. the ionizier pointing out of the page). 

TGHT will be ramped up to 520A at the rate of 0.1A/min for the full conditioning.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 07:51  

Chamber has pumped down to 5.1e-6 Torr. 

Stepping up TGHT to 50A, monitoring pressure... 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 08:08  

Vac @ 8.6e-6 Torr and slowly going up. 

Increase TGHT to 80A. 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 08:38  

Pressure reached to 6.4e-5 Torr and came down. 

Initiated auto heating.  TGHT max to 520A at 0.1A/min. 

 Monday, August 19, 2013, 10:56

TGHT has reached to max current @ 520A, and heated over the weekend. (See attachment #1)

IG1 currently @ 4.5e-6 Torr, BP @ 33mTorr

Cooling down in progress, rate @ 2A/min.

 Thursday, August 22, 2013, 17:27

Target was removed from the chamber yesterday. 

It looks good and the assembly is underway....

This process is completed.