A Study of the Surface Quality of High Purity Copper after Heat Treatment

Themanufacturing flow of accelerating structures for the compact linear collider, based on diamond-machined high purity copper components, include several thermal cycles (diffusion bonding, brazing of cooling circuits, baking in vacuum, etc.). The high temperature cycles may be carried out following different schedules and environments (vacuum, reducing hydrogen atmosphere, argon, etc.) and develop peculiar surface topographies which have been the object of extended observations. This study presents and discusses the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy investigations.