Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

New deflected-beam gauge for pressures below 10$sup -12$ Torr

Journal Article · · J. Vac. Sci. Technol., v. 12, no. 5, pp. 1072-1078
OSTI ID:4141602
Design and performance of a new hot-filament ionization gauge, specially developed for total pressure measurements down to 10$sup -14$ Torr, are described. The gauge features an electrostatically deflected ion beam which is directed at the funnel cathode of a small channel electron multiplier (CEM). The spurious signal due to electronic desorption of ions from the anode is extremely small, because these ions are typically of higher initial total energy than those from the residual gas, and may, therefore, be evicted from the high-energy side of the ion beam that is energetically dispersed by the deflecting electric field. The x- ray background corresponds to a pressure in the 10$sup -14$ Torr range, and since it can be measured just by inverting the deflector potential, it may easily be zeroed out electronically. Almost none of the secondary particles, released by x rays or ions from the deflecting electrodes, are counted, because the CEM cathode is operated at high negative potential and because most positive secondary ions are collected at the negative deflecting electrode, due to their small kinetic energy. The gauge's sensitivity for nitrogen is about 10$sup 17$ counts/s Torr A, corresponding to 10$sup 5$/Torr for a CEM gain of 10$sup 7$. It is mounted on a 113.5 mm metal flange with ceramic feedthroughs and may be baked up to about 300$sup 0$C.
Research Organization:
CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
NSA Number:
NSA-33-001456
OSTI ID:
4141602
Journal Information:
J. Vac. Sci. Technol., v. 12, no. 5, pp. 1072-1078, Journal Name: J. Vac. Sci. Technol., v. 12, no. 5, pp. 1072-1078; ISSN JVSTA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English