Secondary electron emission and surface charging evaluation of alumina ceramics and sapphire

The breakdown of alumina rf windows is mostly caused by multipactor, as well as by material defects and contamination. Since multipator induces localized surface heating, leading to surface melting, it is necessary to observe secondary electron emission (SEE) coefficients of alumina ceramics under high temperature conditions. The SEE coefficients of commercial alumina ceramics and sapphire were measured by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with a single short-pulsed electron beam (100 pA, 1 ms) at room temperature and at 650degC. Additive materials used for sintering alumina, such as SiO ₂ and MgO, were also investigated. Surface charging evaluations have also become important because the accumulated charges are discharged at the threshold Held, resulting in surface discharge. The surface charging evaluations were carried out by multi-pulse measurements with the injection of successive pulses on the sample. As a result, reductions in the SEE coefficients with temperature were confirmed, except for sapphire. The multi-pulse measurement results indicated that surface charging of the sapphire was higher than that of other samples. This may be one of the factors that causes sapphire not to be durable for rf window applications, compared with alumina ceramics. Although there are few exceptions, it was found that the SEE coefficients of alumina ceramics increased with the purity and the average grain size     

Secondary electron emission from alumina RF windows

The development of alumina RF windows for use at the output section of high-power RF sources is an important issue for accelerators. The breakdown of RF windows is caused by 1. the multipactor effect (electron multiplication on the surface) and/or 2. the discharge of accumulated charges (due to the multipactor effect). Measurements of secondary electron emission (SEE) and surface charging were carried out to determine the durability of various alumina ceramics in this application. Since excessive surface heating takes place during surface discharge, SEE yields at high temperature were also measured. The results indicate that SEE yields become lower at high temperature, and that higher purity alumina ceramics show higher SEE yields. High-power tests using a resonant ring were conducted in order to observe surface charging and electron accumulation. Higher purity alumina ceramics showed superior performance in the high-power tests, probably due to lower surface charging.     

Effect of mechanical finishes on secondary electron emission of alumina ceramics

The effect of surface roughness of insulator on the secondary electron emission (SEE) coefficients was investigated with changing the incident angle of primary electrons. The SEE coefficients were measured using a scanning electron microscope with a single-pulse electron beam (100 pA, 1 ms). As a result, the SEE coefficients increased with the incident angle for smooth surface, while those of rough surface almost did not change with the incident angle. The SEE coefficients of commercial alumina ceramics with three different surface finishes, i.e. as-sintered, as-ground and mirror-finished samples, were also measured before and after annealing treatments. This treatment was carried out in air at 1400 degC for 1 h. After annealing, the SEE coefficients were higher than those of unannealed samples. This increase is proposed to be due to the defect recoveries as well as neutralizations of charging, which significantly influence the SEE. For relative low purity (95% or less), the SEE coefficients of annealed alumina became lower after mechanical grinding operations and lower again after mirror-finished operations. The SEE coefficients of 99.7% purity alumina were almost unaffected by the mechanical finishes.     

Combined disturbance-observer-based control and iterative learning control design for pulsed superconducting radio frequency cavities

The development of iterative learning control combined with disturbance-observer-based(DOB)control for the digital low-level radio frequency(LLRF)system of the ...     

Surface characteristics and electrical breakdown of alumina materials

The electrical breakdown of alumina materials is one of the difficulties in higher electric field applications. This breakdown takes place due to localized excess heating, which is induced by surface defects, multipactor, and surface discharge. These factors were evaluated for several commercial alumina ceramics using a scanning electron microscope and comparing these observations with high-power rf transmission tests. The results indicate that alumina ceramics without F-center defects and lower surface charging are feasible for higher electric field operation.     

Secondary electron emission of TiN-coated alumina ceramics

TiN film is often coated on alumina rf windows to suppress multipactor due to high secondary electron emission (SEE) coefficients. In this paper, SEE coefficients of alumina ceramics and sapphire coated with TiN films of various thicknesses are investigated. The SEE coefficients were measured using a scanning electron microscope with a single-pulse electron beam (100 pA, 1 ms). The SEE coefficients of TiN-coated alumina ceramics were lower than those of uncoated ones and nearly unity for TiN thickness of more than 1 nm, even with incident energy of 1 keV. To emulate multipactor-induced surface heating, the SEE coefficients were also measured at high temperature. The results showed a decrease in the SEE coefficients with temperature for TiN thickness of more than 0.5 nm. TiN coating on an rf window should be as thin as possible, and 0.5-1 nm may be the optimum thickness for suppressing multipactor.