HiTech RedNeck wrote:


With there now being a spot of getter metal on the glass in the vicinity of
the getter loop, I'd think that applying intense RF energy to the area would
also heat that spot (the way silvered or gilded patterns on a china plate,
or even more dramatically the coating on a CD, heat up and spark in a
microwave oven). Assuming this heat was enough to re-vaporize part of the
spot, and the glass didn't break from the thermal shock, I'd wonder if the
vaporized metal might capture enough extra air in a slowly leaking tube to
make a difference for a short time.

Re-heating the getter flash might work, but it also might release all of the
gases the getter trapped on the first go around. It depends on what happens
when you heat barium oxide, barium nitride, barium hydride, ... along with the
barium metal, to a few thousand degrees F in a vacuum.

And, the getter does nothing towards trapping helium that diffused through
the glass... though that shouldn't be too much of a problem, as helium is
rather scarce in our atmosphere.

-Chuck