Measurements of electron cloud density in the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron with the microwave transmission method

The electron cloud effect can pose severe performance limitations in high-energy particle accelerators as the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Mitigation techniques such as vacuum chamber thin film coatings with low secondary electron yields (SEY < 1.3) aim to reduce or even suppress this effect. The microwave transmission method, developed and first applied in 2003 at the SPS, measures the integrated electron cloud density over a long section of an accelerator. This paper summarizes the theory and measurement principle and describes the new SPS microwave transmission setup used to study the electron cloud mitigation of amorphous carbon coated SPS dipole vacuum chambers. Comparative results of carbon coated and bare stainless steel dipole vacuum chambers are given for the beam with nominal LHC 25 ns bunch-to-bunch spacing in the SPS and the electron cloud density is derived.