Installation of Laser Engineered Demonstrator Chamber in the LHC

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Installation of Laser Engineered Demonstrator Chamber in the LHC

13 February, 2024

Laser treatment project team members (from left to right: E. Bez, M. Watkins, M. Himmerlich and A. K. Reascos Portilla) of TE-VSC-SCC after the successful vacuum qualification and installation of the LESS demonstrator in the LHC tunnel right of point 6 performed by their colleagues of TE-VSC-BVO (not on the picture).

Laser treatment project team members (from left to right: E. Bez, M. Watkins, M. Himmerlich and A. K. Reascos Portilla) of TE-VSC-SCC after the successful vacuum qualification and installation of the LESS demonstrator in the LHC tunnel right of point 6 performed by their colleagues of TE-VSC-BVO (not on the picture).

During the ongoing EYETS 2023/24, the vacuum group has successfully installed as part of the WP12 scope a first demonstrator of a laser engineered surface structured (LESS) vacuum chamber in the LHC, aimed to qualify this surface treatment technology to be suitable for nominal LHC operation as well in terms of expected absence of particle-beam interaction. The setup is installed in the vacuum sector C5R6.B, at the end of the long straight section right of point 6, with the LESS treated chamber on the outgoing beam and an untreated reference chamber on the incoming beam. The setup has been equipped with additional beam loss monitors for the detection and precise localisation of eventual UFO events. This test will profit from the high intensity proton operation during the remainder of Run 3, and will conclusively validate the operational compatibility of this novel technology for a possible application of the surface processing on the Q5 magnet beam screens of IP1 and IP5 for the HL-LHC era and potential other applications in current and future accelerator components.

Photograph of the laser treatment assembly during processing – inchworm mole (developed in collaboration with the University of Dundee) in an 80 mm diameter LSS test chamber with Al inserts on top and bottom and laser spot focussed to and scanned across the vacuum chamber inner surface.
Photograph of the laser treatment assembly during processing – inchworm mole (developed in collaboration with the University of Dundee) in an 80 mm diameter LSS test chamber with Al inserts on top and bottom and laser spot focussed to and scanned across the vacuum chamber inner surface.

Photograph of the 3.1 m long beam tube after processing (left) and scanning electron micrographs of the treated surface (right). The laser treatment is deliberately only applied to the two lateral sides of the chambers to simulate a selective treatment, as proposed for the beam screens in the quadrupole field regions of the Q5 magnets.
Photograph of the 3.1 m long beam tube after processing (left) and scanning electron micrographs of the treated surface (right). The laser treatment is deliberately only applied to the two lateral sides of the chambers to simulate a selective treatment, as proposed for the beam screens in the quadrupole field regions of the Q5 magnets.

By Marcel Himmerlich, TE-VSC-SCC

Tags
LHC
HL-LHC
High-Luminosity
Vacuum
LESS