overall: 6 cm x 152 cm x 16 cm; 2 3/8 in x 59 27/32 in x 6 5/16 in
Object Name:
SPEAR Vacuum Section
Date made:
1970-1972
Description:
Section of rectangular vacuum chamber with integral sputter ion vacuum pump. Since the complete vacuum chamber makes up a closed circular apparatus (SPEAR), object 1980.0177.03 has an arc-shaped length. Section cut away to reveal titanium sputter in vacuum pump.
SPEAR (Stanford Positron Electron Accelerating Ring) at SLAC was completed in 1972. SPEAR consists of a single ring some 80 meters in diameter, in which counter-rotating beams of electrons and positrons were circulated at energies up to 4 GeV. SPEAR was the first storage ring/colliding beam facility (collider) to provide important new discoveries in elementary particle physics, e.g., the J/psi meson that is made up of a combination of a quark and an antiquark of an entirely new kind (charm quark) and a third lepton in addition to the electron and the muon (tau lepton). Subsequently, the SPEAR facility has served as an intense x-ray source for research in physics, chemistry and biology. For detailed information, see:
