Beam Heat Loads to Superconducting Quadrupoles for BigRIPS In-Flight Separator at RIKEN

Abstract

The BigRIPS in-flight fragment separator in the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) project was commissioned in 2007 and has been operated for six years. The RIBF accelerator complex has provided a wide range of heavy ion beams from deuteron to uranium with the energy of 250-345 MeV/nucleon. More than 70 experiments of unstable nuclei have been performed using the RI beams produced by the BigRIPS fragment separator. The production target of the RI beams is in close proximity to the first superconducting triplet quadrupoles (STQs) in the BigRIPS fragment separator, so that the STQ is exposed to the high radiation, which causes “beam heat loads” to the cryogenic system. The STQ consists of three air-core NbTi coils with the maximum field gradients of 24 T/m, assembled in the liquid-helium bath cryostat with the warm bore radius of 90 mm. This paper presents measurements of the radiation heat loads to the STQ cryostat for a number of experienced heavy ion beams from oxygen to uranium with the beam power of 1-7 kW. Corresponding radiation transport calculations are presented, and radiation doses and damages to the STQ system are also discussed.