Construction of an innovative heating apparatus for ultrahigh vacuum platens used in high pressure reaction cells

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments 2004-04, Vol.75 (4), p.983-987
• Main Authors: Romano, Esteban J., Schulz, Kirk H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.1666993

A robust heater for use with platen sample holders which are incorporated on commercial ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) reaction cells is described. The system is built with readily available commercial parts and requires minimal tooling for construction. The heater, as built in this publication, will provide heating for standard 1 in. sample platens manufactured by Physical Electronics and other UHV equipment suppliers. A small gauge thermocouple is included in the design for temperature measurement. The heater is capable of resistively heating the sample platen to 1000 K while under UHV and at variable pressures up to approximately 1000 Torr pressure levels. The electrical requirements are 20 A at 6.25 V to attain the temperature of 1000 K in 19 min. The use of this design, in conjunction with a reaction cell, bridges the gap between surface science and conventional catalytic studies by allowing realistic exposure temperatures and pressures while keeping the material from being exposed to atmospheric conditions.