Study on Au coating of ceramic-lined thin-wall vacuum chamber for HIAF

HIAF-BRing, the main synchrotron accelerator of the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility, requires an average pressure lower than 1 × 10−9 Pa and the magnetic field increase rate no less than 12 T/s to fulfill radioactive beam physics and high energy density physics experiments. To reduce the eddy current effect and the gap size of dipoles compared to the thin-wall stainless steel vacuum chamber with reinforced ribs, a new design of ceramic-lined vacuum chamber with wall thickness 0.3 mm has been proposed by IMP. In order to effectively reduce the beam impedance and the desorption rate of ceramic materials, Au coating on ceramic (Yttria stabilized zirconia) by magnetron sputtering has been carried out. The adhesive force of Au film is 28.1 MPa measured by scratch test while the crystalline size of Au particle is in the range of 15.7–21.4 nm by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The longitudinal impedances of four types of round-ring-lined 0.6-m-long straight stainless-steel tubes and the ultimate pressure of the new designed vacuum chamber (uncoated vs Au-coated) have been measured to verify the feasibility of this method.