Extreme High Vacuum and Surface Conditioning

American Vacuum Society defines XHV as the range of pressures below 7.5x10^-13 Torr.  XHV technology is still largely in the development stages.  However, it is in use in accelerators and storage rings, such as the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA.  Achievement of such low pressures in CEBAF is possible due to its large super cold niobium surfaces operating at 2 K.  In the absence of leaks the pressure in the super cold CEBAF beam line is immeasurably low, with present day vacuum instrumentation techniques.  XHV technology has potential applications including the development of long lifetime photo emission electron guns, processing of advanced semiconductor devices, and field emission displays.

The Vacuum Technology Division and Mid-Atlantic Chapter of AVS and the Jefferson Lab are sponsoring a topical workshop, "Extreme High Vacuum and Surface Conditioning," to be held at Jefferson Lab on June 5-7, 2000.  This workshop will focus on the technical limitations and potential solutions for achieving XHV.  The deliberations will include pumping methods, XHV materials and conditioning techniques.  Discussions on improvements in vacuum measurement techniques, extreme sensitivity helium leak detection practices, as well as the calibration of such advanced instrumentation systems will be an integral part of the conference.

Additional topics of interest for participants of the workshop include:
 

• Applications of XHV Technologies
• A Quantitative Understanding of Virtual Leaks
• Means to Eliminate or Reduce the Various Gas Sources in XHV
• XHV Vacuum System Fabrication Methods
• XHV Technology Standards
• Development of Low Cost XHV Systems