Multipactor for e-cloud diagnostics

Electron cloud in particle accelerators can be mitigated by coating the vacuum beam pipe with thin films of low secondary electron yield (SEY). SEY of small samples can be measured in the laboratory. Verifying the performance of long pipes is more complex, since it requires their insertion in the accelerator and the subsequent measurement of the beam induced pressure rise. RF induced multipacting in a coaxial waveguide configuration is proposed as a test before insertion in the machine. The technique is applied to two main bending dipoles of the SPS, where the RF power is fed through a tungsten wire stretched along the vacuum chamber (6.4 m). A dipole with a bare stainless steel chamber shows a clear power threshold initiating an abrupt rise in reflected power and pressure. The effect is enhanced at RF frequencies corresponding to cyclotron resonances for given magnetic fields. Preliminary results show that the dipole with a carbon coated vacuum chamber does not exhibit any pressure rise or reflected RF power up to the maximum available input power. In the event of a large scale coating production this technique will be a valuable resource for quality control.