12

Internship – Installation and test of a Getter pumping station for the Vacuum System of Virgo

Pisa, Italy, European Gravitational Observatory [EGO-ITGPSVSV]

Field(s) of expertise
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Job type
Internship
Education
Diploma
Deadline
Closed

About this job

VIRGO is a 3 km long gravitational-wave detector is located in Cascina, near Pisa in Italy. It has been built in the framework of a French-Italian collaboration. Today this collaboration involves 19 laboratories and more than 250 scientists from various European countries.The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO – sito web www.ego-gw.it ) is a Consortium established in 2000 by CNRS (France) and INFN (Italy) with the aim to ensure the operation and upgrade of the Virgo experiment.Several technologies of various engineering fields are employed in the Virgo experiment: in particular, the entire instrumentation (main optics, laser beams, ‘super-attenuator’ assemblies) are installed under vacuum in order to avoid disturbances due to the residual gas molecules interactions.In order to reach the required vacuum level, at a pressure lower than 10-8 mbar, exceptionally large chambers have been built and put in operation, equipped with different types of pumping systems specialized for the different phases of the evacuation process (mechanical compressors, cryogenic pumps, ion pumps, getter pumps).The getter type pumps are constituted by porous surfaces of Ti alloys chemically reacting with the prevalent gas species (1-12, 1-120, N2, 02, …) that are thus caught (pumped). These are particularly suitable for the lower pressure range, with the advantage of being free of mechanical vibrations and intrinsically safe.In collaboration within the Vacuum team, the candidate will install a Getter pump (Titanium sublimation or NEG) in one station of the Virgo vacuum arms. She/He will activate the pump and then will verify its performances, monitoring the gas composition and pressure, and finally estimate the regeneration time interval.

Profile

Applicants should be in their last years of study in Engineering (Bachelor/Laurea triennale in mechanics, or equivalent technical – industrial specialty).

English required, European citizenship, no criminal convictions.

Internship contract for a period of 3 months funded by the EGO Consortium.

For information on how the personal data in your application is processed, please see the European Gravitational Observatory Privacy Policy.