Charged Particle Beams Research Articles

Exploring the potential of resonance islands and bent crystals for a slow extraction from circular hadron accelerators

New developments in accelerator physics have broadened the set of available techniques for manipulating charged-particle beams. Adiabatic trapping and transport of a beam in resonance islands has been studied and successfully implemented at the CERN Proton Synchrotron to perform multiturn extraction. Bent crystals have been successfully installed in the CERN Large Hadron Collider, improving the cleaning performance of the collimation system, and at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron for reducing losses at the extraction septum in the case of slow extraction. In this Letter, we discuss the potential of the combined use of resonance islands and bent crystals to devise a technique to perform slow extraction in circular hadron accelerators. The proposed approach is promising, particularly for applications with high-intensity beams, as it could dramatically reduce the losses on the extraction devices. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Analysis of the Problems of the Research and Modernization of Emission Units of Analytical Devices of Vacuum Electronics

In various electron-optical and ion-beam devices and vacuum electronics installations, emission elements and units are used to extract and form beams of charged particles. Their focusing properties significantly affect the quality parameters and technical characteristics of the analytical devices and technological installations in which they are used. Due to the specificity of the initial conditions during the formation of the beams of charged particles in the area of charged particle extraction, the methods of studying single and conventional immersion electron lenses are not suitable for the high quality theoretical and numerical studies of the properties of immersion objectives. In this paper, theoretical and numerical studies were conducted on the problems in analyzing the focusing parameters of charged particles in emission elements and units when solving problems of designing and upgrading devices and installations of vacuum electronics. As a result of the studies, a theoretical method for studying cathode lenses with a curved optical axis was developed and options for solving problems in correcting aberrations of emission elements and units were proposed.

Dose increment in ultrashort particle irradiations via coherent stopping power

We present a relativistic self-consistent theory of the coherent stopping power (CSP) of ultradense charged particle beams propagating in a dense matter. CSP corresponds to a collective inelastic collision which adds to the ordinary stopping power of individual particles. Unlike the latter, which depends only on the particles' energy, CSP depends upon many more parameters such as the total charge of the ensemble and its charge density and shape. This paves the way for a broad variety of novel methods to tailor particle absorption and penetration in a dense matter. CSP losses can be explained both by collective excitations of single or multiple molecules and by the emission of coherent Cherenkov radiation. Here we demonstrate that the former mechanism is more relevant than the latter. We find that the coherent energy absorption of subpicosecond particle bunches in water occurs exciting a broad Debye process in the GHz range and an intermolecular stretching vibration mode in the THz region. We generalize the Bethe-Bloch stopping power formula to coherent effects including self-forces, dielectric screening, and absorption by the dense matter. For the sake of a self-consistent dynamical theory including phase space evolution, we have also generalized the Fermi-Eyges theory of particle diffusion to the presence of forces. Nonlinear dynamics is demonstrated, inducing nonlinear dose release, beam self-focusing, and self-enhancement of coherent losses. Given the advent of ultraintense particle sources and their use for biomedical and other relevant applications, our results may be of paramount importance for contemporary and future developments of science and technology. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Transition Radiation on a Conducting Target Shaped as a Right Dihedral Angle

The transition radiation of a charged particle in the simplest case of its incidence onto an infinite, perfectly conducting plane can be described using the method of images known from electrostatics. The same method makes it possible to find the field distribution in more complex cases, such as the field created by a point particle in the presence of two intercepting conducting planes, the angle between which divides exactly the angle of 180°. Based on the method of images, a description is given of the transition radiation that occurs when a fast-charged particle falls on a target in the form of two conducting half-planes intersecting at the right angle (on the inside of the dihedral angle). The features of the radiation emitted by fast and slow particles are qualitatively considered, and their visual interpretation is given. The possibility of using interference effects arising from radiation to monitor beams of charged particles is discussed.

Remote sensing of high energy charged particle current (HEC) for megavoltage therapeutic electron beams

Objective. We demonstrate detection of high energy particle current (HEC) for MeV therapeutic electron beams. Detection of HEC comprises of remote sensing or acquiring information about HEC inside radiation transport medium from a distance outside of the medium. Approach. HEC is self-propelled motion of charged particles through a radiation transport medium. Remote sensing of HEC is embodied in an experimental setup, which includes homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms irradiated with 4–15 MeV electron beams and two large area parallel-plane electrodes extraneous to the phantoms providing two-parameter detection. We also introduce a new type of scanning method (depth-scan) for probing object properties along the beamline axis. Main Results. Deterministic radiation transport simulations and measurements agree, considering differences in simulation vs experimental geometry and experimental uncertainties. Significance. This method may be suitable for range detection of charged particle beams, or for probing of radiation opaque objects in non-destructive testing.

High-dimensional maximum-entropy phase space tomography using normalizing flows

Particle accelerators generate charged-particle beams with tailored distributions in six-dimensional position-momentum space (phase space). Knowledge of the phase space distribution enables model-based beam optimization and control. In the absence of direct measurements, the distribution must be tomographically reconstructed from its projections. In this paper, we highlight that such problems can be severely underdetermined and that entropy maximization is the most conservative solution strategy. We leverage —invertible generative models—to extend maximum-entropy tomography to six-dimensional phase space and perform numerical experiments to validate the model's performance. Our numerical experiments demonstrate consistency with exact two-dimensional maximum-entropy solutions and the ability to fit complicated six-dimensional distributions to large measurement sets in reasonable time. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A conditional latent autoregressive recurrent model for generation and forecasting of beam dynamics in particle accelerators

Particle accelerators are complex systems that focus, guide, and accelerate intense charged particle beams to high energy. Beam diagnostics present a challenging problem due to limited non-destructive measurements, computationally demanding simulations, and inherent uncertainties in the system. We propose a two-step unsupervised deep learning framework named as Conditional Latent Autoregressive Recurrent Model (CLARM) for learning the spatiotemporal dynamics of charged particles in accelerators. CLARM consists of a Conditional Variational Autoencoder transforming six-dimensional phase space into a lower-dimensional latent distribution and a Long Short-Term Memory network capturing temporal dynamics in an autoregressive manner. The CLARM can generate projections at various accelerator modules by sampling and decoding the latent space representation. The model also forecasts future states (downstream locations) of charged particles from past states (upstream locations). The results demonstrate that the generative and forecasting ability of the proposed approach is promising when tested against a variety of evaluation metrics.

Shot noise-mitigated secondary electron imaging with ion count-aided microscopy

Modern science is dependent on imaging on the nanoscale, often achieved through processes that detect secondary electrons created by a highly focused incident charged particle beam. Multiple types of measurement noise limit the ultimate trade-off between the image quality and the incident particle dose, which can preclude useful imaging of dose-sensitive samples. Existing methods to improve image quality do not fundamentally mitigate the noise sources. Furthermore, barriers to assigning a physically meaningful scale make the images qualitative. Here, we introduce ion count-aided microscopy (ICAM), which is a quantitative imaging technique that uses statistically principled estimation of the secondary electron yield. With a readily implemented change in data collection, ICAM substantially reduces source shot noise. In helium ion microscopy, we demonstrate 3[Formula: see text] dose reduction and a good match between these empirical results and theoretical performance predictions. ICAM facilitates imaging of fragile samples and may make imaging with heavier particles more attractive.

Vibration Control Solutions for Microscopy

Abstract Vibration is always present in our environment at some level. It can have a deleterious effect on all types of microscopes and should always be considered when installing a microscope in a facility. Some microscope manufacturers, particularly those who make charged electron or particle beam microscopes, have detailed vibration specifications; others do not. In this article we discuss sources of vibration, techniques for mitigating vibration, and some general rules about which types of vibration control to use based on the type of microscope being used.

Sunbeam: Near-sun statites as beam platforms for beam-driven rockets

We outline a method of beamed power for propulsion that utilizes relativistic electron beams. The physics of charged particle beam propagation in the space plasma environment is discussed and the long-range (> 100 AU) advantage of relativistic electron beams is emphasized. A preliminary statite-based beam emitter for powering probes to 0.1c is proposed and the challenges in beamed-power uses are explored.

Martin-Puplett interferometer for studying THz and subTHz radiation

Abstract The design of a portable terahertz and subterahertz interferometer, manufactured according to the Martin-Puplett scheme, is presented. The possibility of using film polypropylene polarizers in interferometers of this type has been demonstrated. The provided possibility of using various types of radiation detectors makes it possible to perform measurements in high-performance or high-sensitivity modes. The presented interferometer is proposed to be used to measure the spectra of terahertz and subterahertz radiation produced during the interaction of bunched and continuous beams of charged particles with solid targets.

Influence of beam content composition on testbeam studies of hadron calorimeters

Abstract Hadron calorimeters are one of the most important detectors in the contemporary nuclear and particle physics experiments. Their construction and verification process takes years in designing, testing and data analysis of prototypes. Crucial step for the prototypes are tests performed by exposing the detectors to charge particle beams. Here we study the impact of the different beam content composition to one of the main properties of the hadron calorimeters – their energy resolution. We implement a test detector - Metal Hadronic Calorimeter (MACA) in GEANT4 environment and we perform different simulations to study the influence to the main energy resolution parameters.

Physics-constrained machine learning for electrodynamics without gauge ambiguity based on Fourier transformed Maxwell’s equations

We utilize a Fourier transformation-based representation of Maxwell’s equations to develop physics-constrained neural networks for electrodynamics without gauge ambiguity, which we label the Fourier–Helmholtz–Maxwell neural operator method. In this approach, both of Gauss’s laws and Faraday’s law are built in as hard constraints, as well as the longitudinal component of Ampère–Maxwell in Fourier space, assuming the continuity equation. An encoder–decoder network acts as a solution operator for the transverse components of the Fourier transformed vector potential, A^⊥(k,t)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\hat{{\ extbf {A}}}_\\perp ({\ extbf {k}}, t)$$\\end{document}, whose two degrees of freedom are used to predict the electromagnetic fields. This method was tested on two electron beam simulations. Among the models investigated, it was found that a U-Net architecture exhibited the best performance as it trained quicker, was more accurate and generalized better than the other architectures examined. We demonstrate that our approach is useful for solving Maxwell’s equations for the electromagnetic fields generated by intense relativistic charged particle beams and that it generalizes well to unseen test data, while being orders of magnitude quicker than conventional simulations. We show that the model can be re-trained to make highly accurate predictions in as few as 20 epochs on a previously unseen data set.

CFD Investigations on Heavy Liquid Metal Alternative Target Design for the SPS Beam Dump Facility

This study introduces numerical advancements in an alternative design for the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) Beam Dump Facility (BDF) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The design envisions a high-power operation target made of flowing liquid lead. The proposed BDF is a versatile facility for both beam-dump-like and fixed-target experiments. The target behavior is studied, assuming a proton beam with a momentum of 400 GeV/c, a pulse frequency of 1/7.2 Hz, and an average beam power of 355 kW. Using various Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes, we evaluate the behavior of liquid lead and predict the thermal stress on the target vessel induced by the pulsed heat source generated by the charged particle beam. The comparison increases the reliability of the results, investigating the dependencies on the CFD modeling approach. The beam is a volumetric heat source with data from the beam-lead interaction simulations provided by the European Laboratory for Particle Physics and obtained with a Monte Carlo code. Velocity field and stress profiles can enhance the design of the lead loop and verify its viability and safety when operated with a liquid metal target.

Corrugated waveguide with matched phase and group velocities: an extended regime of wave-beam interaction

We show that it is possible to design corrugated waveguides where phase and group velocities coincide at an inflection point of the dispersion relation, thereby allowing an extended regime of interaction with a charge particle beam. This provides a basis for designing travelling slow-wave structures with a broadband interaction between relativistic charged particle beams and propagating terahertz waves allowing an energy exchange between beam and wave, amplifying terahertz radiation. We employ Fourier-Mathieu expansion, which gives approximate analytic solutions to Maxwell equations in a corrugated waveguide with periodically undulating cross-section. Being analytic, this enables quick design of corrugated waveguides, determined from desirable dispersion relations. We design a three dimensional waveguide with the desired dispersion and confirm the analytical predictions of the wave profile, using numerical simulations. Madey’s theorem is used to analyse the strength of the wave-beam interaction, showing that there is a broad frequency interaction region.

Charging of space debris in the LEO and GEO regions

We present theoretical estimates of the electrical charge and electrostatic surface potentials on debris objects orbiting in the LEO and GEO regions of the Earth's ionosphere. The estimates are obtained using analytic calculations based on an improved Orbital Motion Limited model as well as through numerical Particle-In-Cell simulations using the open-source SPIS code. A variety of shapes, sizes, and material compositions of the debris objects are considered, including HAMR objects with a high area-to-mass ratio and objects composed of insulating and conducting material patches. In the GEO region, we consider the charging arising from photo-emission effects and the impact of energetic charged particle beams associated with solar flares. We discuss the nature of the debris-induced collective excitations in the plasma and their potential use for debris detection.

Development of a non-intercepting weak beam current measurement electronics for Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility in Lanzhou.

Non-destructive measurements of low-intensity charged particle beams are particularly challenging for beam diagnostics. At the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL), beams with weak currents below 1 µA are often provided for experiments. The detection of such low beam current is below the threshold of typical standard beam current transformers. Therefore, a low-intensity monitoring system is developed by using a sensitive capacitive pick-up (PU) and low-noise electronics. This device measures beam currents by digitally analyzing the amplitude of the PU signals using a homodyne detection scheme. During lab tests, the amplitude nonlinearity is <0.5% in the operational range of 1 nA-45 µA and the amplitude resolution is 0.94 nA. At present, four measurement systems for low beam currents are installed at HIRFL for the monitoring of standard operating conditions with low beam currents below 1 µA. After an absolute calibration with a Faraday cup, it can be used for accurate beam intensity measurement with a current resolution of about 1 nA.

Guiding of Charged Particle Beams in Curved Plasma-Discharge Capillaries

Guiding of Charged Particle Beams in Curved Plasma-Discharge Capillaries

Tandem Energy-Analyzer/Mass-Spectrometer Measurements of an Ionic Liquid Ion Source

Ionic liquid ion sources (ILISs) produce charged particle beams by using a strong electric field to extract and accelerate molecular ions and ion clusters from liquid propellant. The wide variety of emitted species and the fragmentation of metastable ion clusters lead to broad distributions of energy and mass among plume species. Quantifying those distributions is critical to understanding ILIS physics and ILIS performance in a particular application. Here, we use an electrostatic energy analyzer in tandem with a mass spectrometer (EA/MS) to measure mass spectra for various energy ranges in the plume of an ILIS operating with the electrospray propellant EMI-BF4. Those spectra were used to calculate energy distributions for major plume species, probed at the entrance of the EA/MS instrument. Those measurements suggest that 12% of the plume (by current fraction) is composed of species formed by ion clusters that fragment more than once prior to reaching the instrument. For the first time, we estimate the composition of the plume within the electric field of the ion source from experimental measurements. That analysis shows that at least 10% of plume current was emitted as trimers, and more than 3% was emitted as larger species.

Investigation of dosimetric characteristics of radiochromic film in response to alpha particles emitted from Americium-241.

In radiotherapy, it is essential to deliver prescribed doses to tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Accurate measurements of absorbed dose are required for this purpose. Gafchromic® external beam therapy (EBT) radiochromic films have been widely used in radiotherapy. While the dosimetric characteristics of the EBT3 model film have been extensively studied for photon and charged particle beams (protons, electrons, and carbon ions), little research has been done on -particle dosimetry. -emitting radionuclides have gained popularity in cancer treatment due to their high linear energy transfer, short range in tissue, and ability to spare surrounding organs at risk, thereby delivering a more localized dose distribution to the tumor. Therefore, a dose-calibration film protocol for -particles isrequired. This study aimed to develop a dose-calibration protocol for the -particle emitting radionuclide 241Am, using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and measurements with unlaminated EBT3films. In this study, a MC-based user code was developed using the Geant4 simulation toolkit to model and simulate an 241Am source and an unlaminated EBT3 film. Two simulations were performed: one with voxelized geometries of the EBT3 active volume composition and the other using water. The dose rate was calculated within a region of interest in the voxelized geometries. Unlaminated EBT3 film pieces were irradiated with the 241Am source at various exposure times inside a black box. Film irradiations were compared to a 6-MV photon beam from a Varian TrueBeam machine. The simulated dose rate was used to convert the exposure times into absorbed doses to water, describing a radiochromic-film-based reference dosimetry protocol for -particles. The irradiated films were scanned and through an in-house Python script, the normalized pixel values from the green-color channel of scanned film images wereanalyzed. The 241Am energy spectra obtained from the simulations were in good agreement with IAEA and NIST databases, having differences 0.516% for the emitted -rays and produced characteristic x-rays and 0.006% for the -particles. Due to the short range of -particles, there was no energy deposition in the voxels outside the active 241Am source region projected onto the film surface. Thus, the total dose rate within the voxels covering the source was 0.847 0.003 Gy/min within the sensitive layer of the film (LiPCDA) and 0.847 0.004 Gy/min in water, indicating that the active volume can be considered water equivalent for the 241Am beam quality. A novel approach was employed in -film dosimetry using an exponential fit for the green channel, which showed promising results by reducing the uncertainty in dose estimation within 5%. Although the statistical analysis did not reveal significant differences between the 6-MV photon beam and the calibration curves, the dose-response curves exhibited the expected behavior. The developed MC user code simulated the experimental setup for -dosimetry using radiochromic film with acceptable uncertainty. Unlaminated EBT3 film is suitable for the dosimetry of -radiation at low doses and can be used in conjunction with other unlaminated GafChromic® films for quality assurance and researchpurposes.