The DLR Complex Irradiation Facility (CIF)

Kurzfassung

The DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen has built a new facility to study the behavior of materials under complex irradiation and to estimate their degradation in a space environment. It is named Complex Irradiation Facility (CIF). CIF allows simultaneously irradiating samples with three light sources for the simulation of the spectrum of solar electromagnetic radiation. The light sources are a solar simulator with a Xe-lamp (wavelength range 300-1200nm), a deuterium-UV-source (112-200nm), and an Argon-gas-jet-VUV-simulator. The latter allows irradiating samples with shorter wavelengths below the limitation of any window material. The VUV-simulator has been validated at the PTB (Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt) in Berlin by calibration that uses synchrotron radiation in the wavelength range between 40 and 400nm. Beside the different light sources CIF provides also electron and proton sources. Electrons and protons are generated in a low energy range from 1 to 10 keV with currents from 1 to 100 nA and in a higher range from 10 to 100 keV with 0.1 to 100 µA. Both particle sources can be operated simultaneously. In order to model temperature variations as appear in free space, the sample can be cooled down to liquid Nitrogen and heated up to about 450 K during irradiation. The complete facility has been manufactured in UHV-technology with metal sealing. It is free of organic compounds to avoid self-contamination. The different pumping systems achieve a final pressure of 1*1010 mbar (empty sample chamber) Besides the installed radiation sensors that control the stability of the various radiation sources and an attached mass spectrometer for analyzing the outgassing processes in the chamber, the construction of CIF allows adding other in-situ measurement systems to measure parameters that are of the user’s interest. We are currently planning to develop an in-situ measurement system in order to determine changes in the optical properties of the samples caused by irradiation. Within this paper we will show the design of CIF in more detail and discuss the performance of the various radiation sources.