The Pumping of Hydrogen and Helium by Sputter-Ion Pumps

Abstract

The pumping of hydrogen in diode and triode sputter-ion pumps is discussed. The type of cathode material used in these pumps is shown to have a significant impact on the effectiveness with which hydrogen is pumped. Examples of this include data for pumps with aluminum and titanium-alloy cathodes. Diode pumps with aluminum cathodes are shown to be no more effective in the pumping of hydrogen than in the pumping of helium. The use of titanium or titanium alloy anodes is also shown to measurably impact on the speed of these pumps at.very low pressures. This stems from the fact that hydrogen is [times]10[sup 6] more soluble in titanium than in stainless steel. Hydrogen becomes resident in the anodes because of fast neutral burial. Lastly, quantitative data are given for the He speeds and capacities of both noble and conventional diode and triode pumps. The effectiveness of various pump regeneration procedures, subsequent to the pumping of He, is reported.These included bakeout and N[sub 2] glow discharge cleaning. The comparative desorption of He with the subsequent pumping of N[sub 2] is reported on. The N[sub 2] speed of these pumps was used as the benchmark for defining the size of the pumps vs. their respective He speeds.