Investigating novel materials, learning to handle and produce them at high quality in large quantities is paramount for building particle accelerators which will extend the intensity and energy frontiers and expand our present understanding of nature. Experience from LEP and LHC has shown that innovative materials with unprecedented thermo-mechanical and electrical properties also find numerous applications outside particle physics.

The study is designing a new vacuum system for the particle beam that can mitigate the interaction of the high-energy beam particles with their environment. This task poses quality and mechanical challenges, since a seamless surface over many kilometers is the key to making this approach work.

Innovation potentials of materials and processes used for a beam vacuum system:

• Higher reliability and reduced cost for accelerators

• Superconducting electronics

• Secondary pick-up coils in Magnet Resonance Imaging

• High-bandwidth wireless communication

• Hardened surfaces for automotive parts and tools

• Thin film coatings for aircraft, helicopter and car components