ISABELLE vacuum systems

The Intersecting Storage Accelerator (ISABELLE) consists of two rings having a circumference of 3.8 km each. In these rings superconducting magnets, held at 4 K, bend and focus the proton beam which is accelerated up to 400 GeV. Due to very different pressure requirements, ISABELLE has two completely independent vacuum systems. One, which operates at 1 x 10-11 Torr, provides a very clean environment for the circulating proton beam. Here only ion and titanium sublimation pumps are used to provide the vacuum. The other system maintains superconducting magnet vessels at a pressure below 1 x 10-4 Torr, since at this pressure the gas conduction becomes negligible. In this so-called insulating vacuum system, turbomolecular pumps pump the inadvertent small helium leaks. Other gases are cryocondensed on the cold surfaces of the cryogenic system. The basic element of ISABELLE known as Full Cell containing 45 meters of beam tube, 8 pumping stations, 8 superconducting magnets and complete instrumentation has been constructed, leak checked and tested. All design parameters have been achieved in both vacuum systems. The two vacuum systems are described with particular emphasis on the influence of superconducting magnets in the selection of materials and UHV components