Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 15:53

Target boat has a layer of niobium foil on the bottom of the boat.

A niobium foil has been made with slots to hold samples [similar to when sintering endcaps] *See attached photos

Niobium samples are placed in slots, holding in place, to avoid warping.

Smaller samples closest to MIKRON IR reading [left side]

Boat is wrapped with 1 large layer of Ta foil, wrapped around the boat 3x, careful to avoid touching samples.

Loaded into evap2 today.

Pumping down now...

 Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 11:45

HS water valves opened, no leaks detected.

Tapped up manually to 35A.

IGP1 = 6.4e-7 Torr

Setting auto-ramp rate at 0.2A/min to max setpoint of 250A.

Will tap up manually to final desired temperature of 1400C.

 Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 13:17

IGP1 = 5.9e-7

TGHT = 66A, 0.51V

Vacuum stable.

Increasing ramping rate to 1.0A/min

 Thursday, November 24, 2016, 08:46

IGP1 = 3.9e-7 Torr

TGHT = 250A, 3.41V      *NOTE: the current set reads 243.8A but the readout is 250A

OMEGA = 1013C

MIKRON has no reading yet

Tapping up manually to 1400C

 Thursday, November 24, 2016, 15:42

Samples have remained at ~1400C for 5hrs.

IGP1 = 5.8e-7 Torr

TGHT = 420A, 6.5V

OMEGA = 1410C

MIKRON = 1420C

Initiating auto-cool at 2.0A/min

 Friday, November 25, 2016, 11:39

Vented in air and opened up this morning.

Samples look good!