Impact of deconditioning on the secondary electron yield of Cu surfaces in particle accelerators

Electron cloud is a critical phenomenon in particle accelerators operating with high intensity and positively charged beams, as it is responsible for beam instabilities, vacuum degradation, and heat load on cryogenic sections. Electron clouds provoke a conditioning of the beam pipe that is reflected on the reduction of its secondary electron yield (SEY). However, such a benefit is partially lost when vacuum sectors are vented for maintenance of accelerators; this phenomenon is called deconditioning. Samples removed from accelerators are also vented before surface analysis. Deconditioning amplifies the electron cloud at the resuming of beam operation and, on the other hand, hinders the understanding of the electron multipacting mechanism from surface analysis data. In this paper, copper deconditioning was studied for samples stored in a desiccator over months. Immediately after air exposure, an increase of the SEY is observed. This increase is driven by carbon recontamination and copper hydroxide growth on the conditioned surface as observed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. After deconditioning, the differences of SEY present on the tested samples partially vanish, in particular, for surfaces conditioned to a maximum SEY below 1.45, limiting the level of accessible information when analyzing components extracted from accelerators. However, for a maximum SEY above 1.45, the differences remain visible for at least 8 weeks of storage. Among different storage conditions, vacuum efficiently stops the SEY increase over time. Besides, the memory effect of the conditioning is preserved over at least 4 months when closing the vacuum system on itself after venting with a clean and dry gas.