EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

CERN-AB-2003-093 (ABP)

The Impedance of Multi-layer Vacuum Chambers

Luc Vos

Summary

Many components of the LHC vacuum chamber have multi-layered walls : the copper coated cold
beam screen, the titanium coated ceramic chamber of the dump kickers, the ceramic chamber of the
injection kickers coated with copper stripes, only to name a few. Theories and computer programs
are available for some time already to evaluate the impedance of these elements. Nevertheless, the
algorithm developed in this paper is more convenient in its application and has been used extensively
in the design phase of multi-layer LHC vacuum chamber elements. It is based on classical
transmission line theory. Closed expressions are derived for simple layer configurations, while beam
pipes involving many layers demand a chain calculation. The algorithm has been tested with a
number of published examples and was verified with experimental data as well.

Geneva, Switzerland
October , 2003
1 Introduction

For the LHC it has been necessary to compute the impedance of mult-layered vacuum
chambers since a major part of the beam pipe belongs to this family : the copper coated cold
beam screen, the titanium coated ceramic chamber of the dump kickers, the ceramic chamber
of the injection kickers coated with copper stripes, the copper coated µ-metal pipes of the
septum magnets, the copper coated ceramic TDI injection collimators, the copper coated
cold-warm transition pieces, the copper coated carbon collimators, the NEG coated warm
vacuum pipes.
The impedance of multi-layer vacuum chamber walls can be found by solving Maxwell’s
equations taking into account the proper boundary conditions. The task is tedious and has
been done before[1]. A physically transparent alternative exists which is easy to understand
and simple to implement. The basic idea is as follows. A particle beam moving with velocity
βc, is accompanied by transverse electric and magnetic fields. In free space these fields tend
to infinity while they are simply cut by a perfectly conducting vacuum chamber. Both cases
are identical from the point of view of the beam. The situation changes drastically when the
vacuum chamber is no longer perfectly conducting or has other propagation properties than
those of free space. Fields penetrate the inner surface of the vacuum chamber material. The
tangential magnetic field is continuous across the inner boundary. The penetrating magnetic
field generates a surface current density which requires a longitudinal electric field in the
face of a non-zero surface impedance. This field pair (tangential magnetic field and
longitudinal electric field) forms a transverse wave in the vacuum chamber material. The
problem at hand consists in finding the longitudinal electric field. The transverse wave is
launched in a sequence of layers with different but known characteristics. The situation is
essentially that of a transmission line comprising different sections, each with a different but
known intrinsic impedance and propagation constant. Hence, the input impedance of this
structure, which is the longitudinal impedance, can be found in a straightforward manner.
The theory of transmission lines implicitly takes into account Maxwell’s equations with the
proper boundary conditions.

2 Basic transmission line parameters [2]

Each material can be characterised electro-magnetically by three parameters. They are the
electric conductivity σm, the permeability µm and the dielectric constant εm. Both µm and εm
can be complex. The intrinsic impedance of the material m is :

jωµ m
Zm = . (1)
j ωε m + σ m

The other parameters that are required are the propagation constants. Zotter specifies without
proof the radial propagation constant [3, page 158] ,[6]:

 ω 2
γ 2
=   + jωµ m (σ m + jωε m ). (2)
 βc 
Tm

The derivation of this quantity goes as follows. Consider a beam travelling in vacuum with a
speed βc parallel to a material boundary. The intrinsic propagation constants in vacuum and
in the material are known quantities : γ0 and γm. In the most general case one can write the
transverse propagation constants as :

2
 γ T2 = γ 02 − hs2
, (3)
γ Tm
2
= γ 2m − hsm
2

where γT is the transverse propagation constant and hs the longitudinal propagation constant.
From the continuity of the magnetic field across the boundary it follows that hs = hsm.
Moreover, there is no transverse propagation in the vacuum such that γT = 0 and γ0 = hs =
hsm. Hence:
 jω  2
γ Tm = γ m − γ 0 = jωµ m (σ m + jωε m ) −   .
2 2 2
(4)
 βc 

3 Setting-up the transmission line relations

Consider a set of parallel layers numbered n = 1, 2 ... from the first vacuum-material
boundary onwards. Each set is characterised by its intrinsic impedance Zn, valid for a unit
area, and its transverse propagation constant γTn = γn (drop subscript T since only transverse
waves are dealt with from this moment onwards) and its length or thickness. The last layer,
which can be of any nature (vacuum, conductor, insulator) has infinite length. No reflections
occur in this part of the transmission line, hence it loads the previous section with its
characteristic impedance. This allows the computation in a piecewise fashion of the input
impedance and transfer impedance of each preceding line section. The input impedance of
the first section (inverse order, last in computation!) is simply the surface impedance
experienced by the beam.

The classical formulae for the transfer and input impedances are :

Ztn = Zin+1 cosh(γ n sn ) + Zn sinh(γ n sn )

Ztn , (5)
Zin = Zn
Zn cosh(γ n sn ) + Zin+1 sinh (γ n sn )

where Zin, Ztn are the input and transfer impedances of section n and Zin+1, Ztn+1 are the input
and transfer impedances of section n+1. The length of section n is sn. The penetration of the
electro-magnetic fields through the different layers is defined by the transfer impedances and
the input impedances as will be shown below.

Consider a flat beam travelling through vacuum between two planar perfect conductors. The
electro-magnetic fields travel with a speed βc, no reflections occur. Interrupt the perfect
conductors and insert a piece of material with known electro-magnetic and geometric
properties and which length is unity. The primary fields that accompany the beam are not
altered, namely the tangential magnetic field. Its interaction with the input impedance of the
insertion generates a longitudinal electric field. The input impedance is the longitudinal
impedance of the vacuum chamber insert. The equivalent transmission line diagram for three
consecutive layers is shown in Fig 1. The last layer is always infinitely thick, in this case
layer three, and serves as load impedance of the previous section. Since we work with fields,
impedances are surface impedances. The magnetic field at the entry of the first transmission
line section is given by Ampere’s law :

Hi = Hi1 = J b , (6)

3
where Jb is the planar beam current density .

transverse
transmission lines
Hi1
Z1, γ1, Z2, γ2,

Ei1 Z3

Figure 1 : Equivalent transmission line circuit of a vacuum chamber consisting of three

layers.

The transverse wave will be partially reflected and transmitted at each transmission line
junction except at the last one since it is infinitely long. The effect of the partial reflections
and transmissions is duly taken into account in the formulae of the input and transfer
impedances (Eq.5). The computation proceeds backwards and yields the input impedance
Zi1. When needed, the penetration of the magnetic field through the various layers can be
found with the transfer impedances Ztn. Indeed,

Ei1
Hi1 = ,
Zi1
Ei1 Zi1
Hi2 = = H , (7)
Zt1 Zt 1 i1
Z Z
Hi3 = i1 i 2 Hi1 .
Zt1 Zt 2

4 Cylindrical geometry versus planar geometry

The input magnetic field in cylindrical geometry is given by :

ib
Hi1 = , (8)
2π b

where ib is beam intensity and b the radius of the pipe. The beam is located in the center. In
free space the magnetic field decreases as r-1, where r is the increasing distance from the
beam. Consider two consecutive layers. If the area of the first is unity,then the area of the
second is unity increased by ∆1/b, ∆1 being the thickness (length of equivalent transmission
line) of the first layer. The increased cross-section of the second layer increases in a similar
way the inductance, the capacitance and the conductivity. Hence the characteristic
impedance is not changed and the transmission constant increases with ∆1/b. For subsequent
layers the transmission constant increases by ∆2/(b+∆1), etc. Obviously, this effect is only

4
significant when ∆1/b is not too small. In practice it turns out that the simple planar geometry
is a good approximation for most cylindrical cases.

5 Special cases

A few cases with a small number of layers lead to relatively simple closed formulae.

5.1 A single metallic layer with infinite thickness

The input impedance is the intrinsic impedance of the metal :

jωρ
Z1 = Z0 ≈ jωµρ , (9)
j ωρ + Z 0 c

where Z0 is the impedance of free space and ρ =1/σ. Eq. 9 is the classical skin depth formula.
The approximation is valid for radian frequencies ω c << Z0 ρ .

5.2 A single metallic layer with finite thickness

The impedance of the outer layer is Z0. The metal layer has resistivity ρ, thickness s1, and the
usual free space value for permeability µ and dielectric constant ε. The intrinsic impedance
and the propagation constant are for β = 1:

jωρ
Z1 = Z0
j ωρ + Z 0 c
. (10)
jωµ
γ1 =
ρ

This yields the following surface impedance :

jωρ  jωµ 
1+ tanh s
jωρ + Z0 c  ρ 1 
Zi1 = Z0 
. (11)
jωρ + Z0 c jωµ 
1+ tanh s1
jωρ  ρ 

For ω = 0 the impedance is real and corresponds to a parallel circuit formed by the
impedance of vacuum (Z0) and the surface impedance of the metal wall ρ/s1. The impedance
reduces to the previous case for frequencies where the skin depth is smaller than s1.

5.3 A dielectric layer followed by an infinitely thick conductor

The impedance of the outer layer is :

jωρ
Z2 = Z0 . (12)
jωρ + Z0 c

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The dielectric has a thickness s1, conductivity zero, permeability µ and dielectric
constant ε 1 = εε r where εr is the relative permeability. The intrinsic impedance and the
propagation constant of this layer are:

jωµ Z
Z1 = = 0
jωε 1 εr
. (13)
ω 2 ω
γ 1 =   − ω 2 µε 1 = 1 − εr
 c c

The input surface impedance is then :

jωρ + Z0 c ω 
1+ tanh 1− ε r s1 
jωρ jωρε r c 
Zi1 = Z0 . (14)
jωρ + Z0 c jωρε r ω 
1+ tanh 1− ε r s1 
jωρ + Z0 c c 

ω π
A resonance can be identified when ε r − 1s1 =
, or f res = c 4 ε r − 1s1 . Take for
c 2
example a 5mm thick ceramic with εr = 4, hence fres = 8.66 GHz. For lower frequencies the
impedance reduces to a pure surface inductance :

ε r −1
Li1 = µ s. (15)
εr 1

5.4 A thin conductive layer followed by an infinitely thick conductor with different
conductivity.

The thickness of the first layer is s1 and its resistivity is ρ1. The resistivity of the second
conductor is ρ2 different from ρ1. The permeability and permittivity are those of free space.
The intrinsic impedances are :

jωρ 1 ω
Z1 = Z0 ≈ j Z 0 ρ1
j ωρ 1 + Z 0 c c
, (16)
ω
Z2 = j Z0 ρ2
c

where ω/c << Z0/ρ1,2. The propagation constant of the first layer is :

jωµ
γ1 = . (17)
ρ1

If the skin depth in the thin layer is larger than s1 , then the input surface impedance is :

6
 j ωµ
1+ s
Z cosh γ 1 s1 + Z1 sinh γ 1 s1 jω ρ2 1
Zi = Z1 2 ≈ ρ Z . (18)
Z1 cosh γ 1 s1 + Z2 sinh γ 1 s1 c 2 0 ρ 2 j ωµ
1+ s1
ρ1 ρ2

If ρ1 > ρ2, that is a bad conductor on the inside of a good conductor, then :

jω  jωµ   ρ 2 jωµ  jω  ρ 
Zi = ρ 2 Z0  1 + s 1− s ≈ ρ 2 Z0 + j ωµs1 1 − 2  . (19)
c  ρ 2 1   ρ1 ρ 2 1  c  ρ1 

Note that the first term is the impedance without the thin layer. Hence the thin layer adds an
inductance to the impedance of the outer (good) conductor. If ρ1 >> ρ2 then the additional
inductance is simply:

L = µs1 . (20)

If ρ1 < ρ2, that is a good conductor on the inside of a bad conductor, then the admittance is :

ρ2 jωµ
1+ s
1 ρ1ρ2 1 s1 s δ
Yi = ≈ + Z2−1 = 1 + (1 + j ) 2 , (21)
jω j ωµ ρ1 ρ1 ρ2
ρ2 Z0 1+ s1
c ρ2

where δ2 is the skin depth in the bad conductor. The approximation is valid for
ω c < ρ2 (Z0 s12 ). The impedance is a parallel circuit of the thin good conducting layer (first
term) and the intrinsic impedance of the (thick) bad conducting material behind.

6 More complicated cases

For more than two layers it is not impossible but cumbersome to write down the expression
for the input surface impedance (equal to the longitudinal impedance) of the beam pipe. The
cascade calculation based on Eq.5 for impedance and on Eq.7 if penetration is the issue, is
simple to perform in the form of a notebook (MATHCAD or MATHEMATICA).

As an example consider a ceramic layer with a thin metallic coating on the inside, outside is
air. Assume the same type of ceramic as in 5.3. The numerical notebook results show the
same resonance at 8.66 GHz. The impedance for lower frequencies appears to be the
impedance of a parallel circuit formed by the thin metallic layer (ρ/s1) and the outer layer
(air) Z0.

7 Benchmarking with published data

7.1 Double metallic layer

In [4] Lambertson studies the case of a double walled beam tube at the PEP-II interaction
point. The parameters used for the calculation are as follows. Two coaxial cylindrical Be

7
tubes with thickness 0.8 mm and 0.4 mm with a space of 1.6 mm between. A copper shield is
placed at 2 mm from the outer Be tube. The inner radius of the assembly is 25 mm. The
conductivity of Be is 3*107 Ω-1m-1 and that of copper 5.8*107 Ω-1m-1. The relativistic beam
parameter is γ = 6070. It is desired to know the beam electro-magnetic field at the inside face
of the copper shield where silicon detectors are installed. A field attenuation factor of 11.898
- j117.45 is found at the orbital frequency of 136 kHz ([4] Eq 29 page 9). The attenuation
factor computed with the transmission line algorithm in a plane geometry turns out to be
10.861-j105.72.

7.2 Coated ceramic chamber in a kicker magnet

In [4] the longitudinal impedance is computed for a ceramic chamber with a thin metallic
inside coating inserted in a ferrite kicker magnet. The parameters used in the calculation are
as follows. The thin coating has a surface resistivity of 0.3 Ω, a conductivity of 3.5*105 Ω-
1 -1
m and a relative permeability of 1000. The ceramic is 6.4 mm thick and has a relative
permittivity of 9. The ferrite is 25 mm thick and has a relative permeability of 1300 and a
permittivity of 10. The outermost layer is copper with a conductivity of 5.8*107 Ω-1m-1. The
relativistic beam parameter is γ = 6070.

The result of the transmission line algorithm is shown in Figure 2.

2

Real
1.5
Surface resistance [Ω]

Imaginary
0.5

0
100 1 103 1 104 1 105
Frequency [Hz]

Figure 2 : Surface impedance of a coated ceramic chamber.

The agreement with Fig 1 on page 11 of [4] is very good.

7.3 Layered vacuum chambers

In [5] the transverse impedance of the LHC beam screen is computed with LAWAT, a
computer program based on [6]. The parameters of the calculation are the following. A 2
mm thick stainless steel chamber with radius b = 0.019m is coated on the inside with 50 µm
copper at cryogenic temperature. The conductivity of the copper layer is 5.5 109 Ω-1m-1. The
conductivity of the steel is 2 106 Ω-1m-1. An outer shield with infinite conductivity is placed
at 3.45 mm from the stainless steel chamber. The transverse impedance is computed from 1

8
to 1010Hz. The transmission line algorithm only yields the longitudinal surface impedance.
In order to compare the results it was necessary to transform the longitudinal surface
impedance into a longitudinal impedance by the standard integration operator ( 2c ωb 2 ) to
obtain the transverse impedance. The result is shown in Figure 3. It should be noted that the
‘inductive bypass’ effect has been taken into account for the computation of the transverse
impedance[7]. The image is identical to Fig 2 of [5] apart from a resonance like phenomenon
on the reactive part of the impedance claimed to be provoked by the direct space charge.

1 109

1 108

1 107

6
1 10

1 105

4
1 10
1 10 100 1 103 1 104 1 105 1 106 1 107 1 108 1 109 1 1010

Figure 3 : Transverse impedance of a layered vacuum chamber.

1
relative magnetic field behind ceramic

0.1
Piwinski

0.01

1 10 3
1 10 4 1 10 3 0.01 0.1 1 10

thickness coating / resistivity

Figure 4 : Penetration of magnetic field through a coated ceramic chamber. Comparison
between the results obtained with the transmission line algorithm(blue) and those obtained
by A. Piwinski in [8] (red).

9
In [8] A. Piwinski computes the penetration of the beam fields through a coated ceramic
chamber coaxial with a good conducting pipe. The ceramic has a thickness of 6 mm and a
relative permittivity εr = 9. Piwinski computes the magnitude of the magnetic field behind
the coated ceramic for four different wavelengths λ (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10m) as function of the
inverse surface resistance of the coating. The inner radius of the ceramic is 0.037m. Fig 4 of
[8] is recomputed with its formula (20) and compared in Figure 4 with the results obtained
with the transmission line algorithm. The wavelengths λ = 0.01 and 0.1m are not included
for the simple reason that a resonance occurs in the ceramic at λ = 0.07m . This phenomenon
is not taken into account in Piwinski’s treatment making a comparison impossible in this
frequency range.

8 Experimental benchmark

In [9] the results obtained in a shielding experiment are reported. The basic experimental
set-up consisted of a 5 mm thick ceramic chamber coated on the inside with a thin layer of
titanium. The magnetic field was measured on the outside of the ceramic for several
configurations. The penetration was measured without and with an additional outer shield
made of brass. The penetration in the first case (a simple one layer case) was extremely
small as expected. The second case is more interesting and consists of three layers with
different properties. The outer shield was connected to the up and downstream vacuum
chamber in two cases and in a third case it was isolated. The connecting shield was mounted
tight on the ceramic in the first case and kept at a much larger distance in the second case. In
the second and third case the edge effects are very important (reflections and an important
inductive insert) and can be accounted for. However, in the first case the edge effect is
negligible and allows a straightforward check of the calculation. Indeed the computed
penetrating current (Figure 5) and the measured one agree very well (top of Fig 8 in [9])
apart from the tail signal which is somewhat larger than calculated.

4
NON SHIELDED CURRENT / amp

bunch current
3

1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

TIME/ ns
Figure 5 : Bunch current (red) and computed current (black) behind ceramic coated with a
resistive layer but inside an outer conductor. This result is to be compared with top of Fig 8
in [9].

10
9 Conclusion

An easy to implement algorithm based on classical transmission line theory has been
presented that allows the calculation of the longitudinal impedance of multi-layered vacuum
chambers of arbitrary but known properties and an arbitrary number of layers. The
transverse impedance can be derived from the longitudinal one with the standard
transformation. The results have been verified with published data (both longitudinal and
transverse) and with experiment. The algorithm has been used to compute the impedance of
numerous elements of the LHC beam pipe.

10 References

[1] B. Zotter, Longitudinal Instabilities of Charged Particle Beams inside Cylindrical

Walls of Finite Thickness, Particle Accelerators, 1970, Vol1.
[2] C. Jordan, K, Balmain, Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, Prentice-
Hall, Inc. 1968.
[3] B. Zotter, S. Kheifets, Impedances and Wakes in High-Energy Particle Accelerators,
World Scientific, Singapore. 1998.
[4] G. Lambertson, Fields in Multilayer Beam Tubes, LBNL-44454, 1999.
[5] E. Keil, O. Meincke, B. Zotter, The Impedance of layered vacuum chambers, EPAC
1998.
[6] B. Zotter, Transverse Oscillations of a Relativistic Particle Beam in a Laminated
Vacuum Chamber, CERN 69-15 Rev, 1969.
[7] L. Vos, The Transverse Impedance of a Cylindrical Pipe with Arbitrary Surface
Impedance, CERN-AB-2003-005 ABP, 2003.
[8] A. Piwinski, Penetration of the Field of a Bunched Beam Through a Ceramic
Vacuum Chamber with Metallic Coating, IEEE, Vol. NS 24, 1977.
[9] D. Brandt, e.a., Penetration of Electro-Magnetic Fields through a Thin Resistive
Layer, AB-Note-2003-002 MD, 2003.

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