The experience of the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) with
aging in the large axial drift chamber responsible for tracking in the
central region is presented. Premature aging in the Run 1 chamber was
observed after only 0.02 C/cm. After cleaning much of the gas system and
making modifications to reduce aerosols from the alcohol bubbler, the
observed aging rate fell dramatically in test chambers Considerable effort
has been made to better understand the factors that affect aging since the
replacement chamber for Run 2 will accumulate about 1.0 C/cm. Current test
chambers using the full CDF gas system show aging rates of less than
5%/C/cm.
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Updated: Wednesday, 2002 February 27 14:21:27 CST automatically from input from Carol Picciolo