Final report of the SSC electrodesorption studies

Electrodesorption studies at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) were part of a larger program to try to understand what would be going on inside the SSC beam tube--for example, how much of the beam tube surface would be exposed to desorbing radiation. Since the incident synchrotron radiation lands on a few-millimeter-wide strip along the beam tube, it is possible that only a very small fraction of the surface would be exposed if the radiation were largely absorbed without rescatter. Therefore, we wanted information about scattering and absorption from various candidate surfaces. The earlier electroplating studies that were carried out by the Central Design Group emphasized high values of the conductivity at 4 K. We wanted to find out if there were other electroplating techniques that might give adequate conductivity but a smaller cross section for hydrogen desorption. This would include looking for other coatings that might reduce the desorption. Gold was often suggested as a possibility.