Reports until 21:37, Friday 25 April 2025
Vacuum Systems General (GQuEST)
Daniel Grass - posted 21:37, Friday 25 April 2025 (12287)
Laser Filter Cavity RGA Data April 25

I took some scans with the RGA this morning and afternoon. The pressure was 1.1E-7 according to the Agilent pressure gauge, but the pressure increased to 1.7E-7 (after a larger transient initial spike which could be electronics pickup) after turning on the RGA. Maty decreased the RGA scan rate and we increased the size to 100 amu. After ~10 minutes, we took scans with the Faraday Cup. We also turned on the Channel Electron Multiplier for the first time.  The data with the Faraday Cup and the Channel Electron Multiplier is pretty similar. The electron multiplier railed on the H2 measurement, so it's probably best to start the scan at 3 amu or wait until the pressure is below 1E-7 Torr, maybe below 5E-8 Torr to avoid burning the filament out. Maty recommended leaving the RGA on (no need to scan) for 3 hours or overnight preferably before getting reliable RGA data. The idea is to let everything come off the RGA before taking data. I took another scan around 5 PM after the filament was on, and the main peaks appear pretty similar (I expect the actual partial pressures to be very similar in a 5 hour timeframe as nothing has changed in the vacuum system for a few days). The hydrocarbon junk above 44 amu does appear lower after the RGA has been on for a while. I want to take more data tomorrow.

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