Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 18:06

Target boat with a layer of niobium foil on the bottom is used to heat up Nb samples to 1400 C for 4 hrs.

The niobium samples are wrapped in a Nb foil.

Boat is wrapped with 2 layers of Ta foil, careful to avoid touching samples.

Thursday, September 26, 2019, 18:10 

The target assembly was exchange to a clean one e-log 459 and the Nb arrangement was loaded into evap2.

Friday, September 27, 2019, 18:13

HS water valves opened, no leaks detected.

Tapped up manually to 40 A.

IGP1 = 9.54e-7 Torr

Setting auto-ramp rate at 0.2 A/min to max setpoint of 100 A.

Vacuum stable.

Setting auto-ramp at 1 A/min to 300 A lead to ~1200 C.

Autoramping at 1 A/min to 400 A will stop at 1400 C.

Temperature reading is 1400 C at:

TGHT = 5.61 V, 345.656 A

The temperature reading went to 1408 C on Omega and 1417 C on Micron so the current was dropped to 342.537 A and 5.56 V

The temperature went to 1418 C on Omega and the current was dropped to 339.281 A

After 4 hours at 1400 C, the Nb was cooled down

The final pressure was 3.07e-7 Torr 

The EVAP2 was vented with air and the Nb was removed.