Slow wire scanner beam profile measurement for LEDA

Abstract

The Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA), located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, utilizes a slow wire scanner to measure beam profiles. The beam energy is 6.7 MeV and the peak current is 100 mA. This wire scanner profile measurement is located in the High Energy Beam Transport (HEBT) section of the LEDA beam line. This section of beam line is used to expand the proton beam coming out of the LEDA Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) prior to impacting the beam-stop. The purpose of the scanner is to provide horizontal and vertical beam profiles. The wires or fibers are a Silicon Carbide (SiC) material, and are attached to an actuator driven by a stepping motor. The actuator drives the fibers through the beam in incremental steps. At each step, the amount of secondary electrons generated by the interactions of the proton beam and the wire are measured. From these incremental measurements the beam profile is constructed. This paper will discuss the operation of the scanner, two of the experiments conducted to understand the capability of the SiC wire to survive and some of the different uses of the beam profile data acquired during the ongoing commissioning of LEDA.