我々は電池駆動式イオンポンプを適用した試料搬送導入装 置を新たに開発した。その結果、イオンポンプを搭載することで従来の装置よりもさらに試料表面の酸化を抑制できるこ と、炭素による汚染も低減できることがわかった。今後は、 さらに可搬性を向上させるために、装置の小型化及び軽量化 を目指した開発や、さらに高真空下で搬送できる装置の開発 を行う予定である。

We have developed a compact sample transfer vessel with a battery-driven ion pump. The size of the vessel is about 67 cm in length, and 7.8 kg in weight. The ion pump can operate for more than 30 hours with 16 commercial AA batteries. The lowest vacuum pressure achieved by this device was 〜10−6 Pa. It is improved by two orders of magnitude, compared to the previous device.We examined the performance of this device by observing adsorbed oxygen species on a cobalt metal plate with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We found that the cobalt metal plate kept in this new device adsorbed about 1/20 as much oxygen as the same plate exposed to the air.

doi: 10.3131/jvsj2.59.192