Picopulse Tandem Tube Swap
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The JRM Photo Gallery: Picopulse Tandem Tube Swap |
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The picopulse project is attempting to create ultrashort ion pulses by focusing an ultrashort laser pulse inside of our Tandem. To prevent the newborn ions from being swept away by the electron-suppressing off-axis fields in our beam tubes, we swapped the existing #3 Dowlish spiral tube for an old, #1 HVEC inclined field tube. The swap happened smoothly on 27 Apr 2005, with the help of a small army of students and staff. Then we shined a laser down the tubes... Each thumbnail below links to a much larger image about 820 kB in size. | ||
 Inside the tandem, before removing the spiral field tube. |
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 Bob Krause, right, prepares his troops to remove the spiral field tube. |
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 The spiral tube begins its journey out of the tank. |
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 The nail-biting part is when we have to lift the tube over the column... |
 ...and slip it out the manway without bending, bumping or breaking anything. |
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 The team outside of the tank receives the spiral tube and brings it gently to rest. |
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 The exit end of the spiral field tube. |
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 The entrance end of the spiral tube. Note the discoloration of the electrodes from years of beam exposure. |
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 Mike Wells and Bob Krause swap hardware from the spiral tube, left, to the inclined field tube, right. |
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 Examining the hole where the tube used to be. |
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 The inclined tube is lifted and starts its trip to the tank. |
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 The inclined tube comes through the hatch. |
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 Nail-biting time, take two: the inclined tube comes up over the column. |
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 Finally, the inclined tube comes to rest in the column. |
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 The inclined tube in place. |
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 Bob, Mike and Kevin Carnes bolt the tube down and begin attaching various bits of hardware. |
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 Associate lab director Kevin Carnes rests on the hard floor of the tandem platform... |
 ...while the spiral tube rests on a soft bed of foam. |
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