Conclusions
This studiedhas illustrated theneed for pre-treatment of vacuum
components prior to installationanduse. Vacuum components as
received from themanufactureoutgas greatly. As such, use inhigh
vacuumandUHV vacuumenvironments is impractical.
Theuseof a caustic cleaning systemandaggressiveheating inan
inert/vacuum condition reduces outgassingof new vacuum
components by orders ofmagnitude.
This study alsodemonstrated theadvantageof usinganamorphous
silicon coating (Silcosteel-UHV) to reduceoutgassingof vacuum
components.
The coatings act as abarrier, trapping volatilematerials suchas
carbonmonoxide, carbondioxideandwater. As such, these volatile
materials are kept fromentering the vacuumenvironment
