Reaching ultra-high vacuum for a large vacuum vessel in an underground environment

Abstract

Located far from anthropical disturbances and with low seismic and magnetic background noise profiles, the LSBB facility is the ideal location for a new hybrid detector for the study of space-time strain. The MIGA infrastructure [1], utilizes an array of atom interferometers manipulated by the same beam, the resonant optical field of a 150 m long optical cavity. The infrastructure constitutes a new method for geophysics, for the characterization of spatial and temporal variations of the local gravity, and is a demonstrator for future decihertz gravitational wave observation. Such an infrastructure requires ultra-high vacuum (10−9 mbar) on a size (150 m) and scale (36 m3) not typically seen in underground laboratories other than CERN [2], and especially in underground environments with high humidity (up to 100%) and significant dust contamination (milimetric to micrometric porous rock particles). Here, we detail the status of the MIGA infrastructure and describe the ongoing generation and analysis of the vacuum works - this comes from tests of the prototype vacuum vessel, focusing on heating cycles, residual gas and heating analysis.