Improving the performance of the cryogenic heat pipe-target system for the COSY-TOF experiment

Very lightweight, thin liquid hydrogen/deuterium heat pipe-target systems are used in the Time Of Flight (TOF) spectrometer at the COSY accelerator facility. The proton beam impinges upon LH₂/LD₂ targets thereby heating the target. The stability of the liquid targets depends on the thermal capacity of the whole system, the energy losses from the proton beam and heat losses from the surrounding of the heat pipe-target system. The radiation heat load has been reduced by a factor of 4.5 by reducing the length of the gas tube from 180 cm (long tube) to 40 cm (short tube). Furthermore, the 40 cm long gas tube was coated with a thin polished gold layer, thereby reducing the heat load by an additional factor 22. The thermal capacity is improved by reducing the mass of the gas tube from 23 g to 5 g. The cool down time of the 7 mm diameter gold coated heat pipe with the gold coated 40 cm gas tube is reduced by 12 min.