Uniform Beam Distributions Of Charged Particle Beams

Abstract

The use of octupole elements was originally suggested [1] to transform the transverse Gaussian distribution of a charged particle beam into a uniform beam distribution having rectangular cross section. The first experimental realization of this concept was materialized at the Radiation Effects Facility (REF) of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) [2] where the transverse Gaussian distribution of a 200 MeV H− beam was transformed into a rectangular uniform distribution. Later, the beam line of the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) facility [3,4] built at BNL, was specifically designed to generate uniform beam distributions with rectangular cross sections, in both, the horizontal and vertical directions, at the location of the target. The NSRL facility generates uniform beam distributions of various nuclear species, which may vary in energy, and also vary in size of the uniform beam distribution. We will present an overview of the method to generate uniform beam distributions, show some results from the NSRL facility, and suggest other possibilities for generating such beam distributions.