Gas evolution of nickel, stainless steel 316 and titanium anodes in vacuum sealed tubes

Abstract

This paper presents a study on gas evolution of three different anode materials in vacuum sealed tubes under UHV conditions. The experimental apparatus consists of a high-power microwave (HPM) virtual-cathode oscillator (vircator) driven by a 200 ns, 80 J, 225 kV low-impedance Marx Generator. Plasma expansion due to explosive electron field emission has shown to lower gap impedance, spoil consistent low vacuum levels, and cut-off microwave radiation. The anode materials compared are nickel 201L (Ni201L), stainless steel 316L (SS316L) and grade-1 titanium (TiG1); with the cathode material being aluminum. The anodes were cleaned by the following method: rough polishing followed by electro-polishing, a ten minute microwave argon / 10% oxygen plasma cleaning process (ArO2) and finally, a 72 hour in situ bake-out at 300°C. Outgassing characteristics of each anode material are presented and compared.