Extracted Proton Beam Research Articles

Improved Production of Novel Radioisotopes with Custom Energy Cyclone® Kiube

The implementation of the Variable Energy (VE) feature in the previously fixed-energy IBA Cyclone® Kiube cyclotron is presented as an upgrade enabling the production of novel radioisotopes with improved radionuclidic purity and production yields. The possibility of easily decreasing the energy of the extracted proton beam, from 18 down to 13 MeV, allows us to avoid the use of degraders and/or thick target windows, thus preventing related beam current limitations. The immediate application of the Variable Energy feature is proven by presenting the improved results obtained for the production of 68Ga from the irradiation of liquid targets simultaneously in terms of radionuclidic purity and activity produced.

Low-power proton beam extraction by the bright continuous laser using the 3-MeV negative-hydrogen linac in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex

ABSTRACT The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has designed a Transmutation Physics Experimental Facility (TEF-P) as an experimental facility in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The TEF-P is a critical assembly driven by a low-power proton beam, a maximum of 10 W, which is extracted from a high-power beam source, such as 250 kW of 400 MeV proton beam of the J-PARC linac. To extract such a low-power proton beam from the high-power proton beam, we developed a laser charge exchange (LCE) device and employed its technique, which is one of the non-contact beam extraction techniques. To confirm the performance of the LCE device, a low-power proton beam was extracted using a negative-hydrogen linac having an energy of 3 MeV, and a bright continuous laser. A 0.57 mW proton beam was successfully extracted with a laser stripping efficiency of . These values obtained are in good agreement with the estimated values.

Laser-assisted high-energy proton pulse extraction for feasibility study of co-located muon source at the SNS

We have experimentally demonstrated the first non-intrusive 1-GeV proton beam extraction for the generation of muons with a temporal structure optimized for Muon Spin Relaxation/Rotation/Resonance (μSR) applications. The proton pulses are extracted based on the laser neutralization of 1 GeV hydrogen ion (H−) beam in the high energy beam transport of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator. The maximum flux of the extracted proton beam based on laser neutralization causes only 0.2% reduction of the total proton beam used for neutron production, a marked difference from the 20% reduction at other co-located muon and neutron facilities, and thus the proposed method will result in negligible impact on the SNS operation. This paper describes the development of a fiber/solid-state hybrid laser system that has high flexibility of pulse structure and output power, initial experiments on laser neutralization of H− beam and separation of H0 beam from the existing SNS accelerator beam line, conversion of H0 to proton at the SNS linac dump, and measurement results of 30 ns/50 kHz proton pulses. This system conclusively demonstrates the feasibility of laser-based proton beam extraction to power a world-leading μSR facility at the SNS.

New method for the generation of neutrino beams at accelerators

The generation of neutrino beams at proton accelerators is a difficult scientific and engineering problem. To obtain narrow directional neutrino beams for experiments, intense extracted proton beams are used, secondary particles ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] mesons) are generated at an external target. Further, to obtain parallel beams of these neutrino parent particles, high-current electromagnetic lenses are used. In this work, a surprisingly simple method based on a crystal focusing device has been proposed to obtain neutrino beams. Neutrino fluxes are calculated in comparison with the traditional scheme.

New Method for the Generation of Secondary Particle Beams at Accelerators

The generation of beams of secondary particles (π and K mesons) at proton accelerators is a difficult scientific and engineering problem. To obtain narrow directional particle beams for experiments, intense extracted proton beams are used, secondary particles (π and K mesons) are generated at an external target, and they are focused and transferred through long magneto-optical channels. In this work, a surprisingly simple method based on a crystal focusing device has been proposed to obtain secondary beams. An experiment on the production of a secondary beam using a crystal has been performed at the U-70 accelerator. Schemes for the formation of beams with energies E ~ 1 TeV have been proposed for large colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider.

Positive features of crystal extraction of protons and carbon ions from the U-70 on basis of long-term experience

Works on the steering of particle beams using channeling in aligned bent crystals have been carried out at IHEP over a number of years. Comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies have led to the creation of actually operating systems on the U-70 accelerator. In particular, a slow proton beam extraction with unprecedentedly high parameters, an extraction efficiency of about 85% at a beam intensity of 10[Formula: see text] particles per cycle, has been realized on U-70 using particle channeling in short bent crystals. In recent years, successful experiments on the extraction of carbon ions were performed. At present, crystal elements are used in regular U-70 runs and provide half of the particle beams for physical experiments. Here, we summarize the results of this unique experience in the world practice of accelerators and outline its prospects.

Application of Crystal Elements for Charged Particle Beam Steering and Radiation Beam Generation on the U-70 Synchrotron

Works on the formation of particle and radiation beams using particle channeling and reflection in oriented crystals have been carried out at IHEP over a number of years. Comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies have led to the creation of actually operating systems on the U-70 accelerator. In particular, a slow proton beam extraction with unprecedentedly high parameters, an extraction efficiency of about 85% at a beam intensity of 1012 particles per cycle, has been realized on U-70 using particle channeling in short bent crystals. Experiments to implement the method of particle reflection in crystals for beam extraction and collimation have been carried out on U-70. At present, crystal elements are used in regular U-70 runs and provide half of the particle beams for physical experiments. We summarize the results of this unique experience in the world practice of accelerators and outline its prospects.

Measurements and FLUKA Simulations of Bismuth, Aluminium and Indium Activation at the upgraded CERN Shielding Benchmark Facility (CSBF)

The CERN High energy AcceleRator Mixed field (CHARM) facility is situated in the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) East Experimental Area. The facility receives a pulsed proton beam from the CERN PS with a beam momentum of 24 GeV/c with 5·1011 protons per pulse with a pulse length of 350 ms and with a maximum average beam intensity of 6.7·1010 protons per second. The extracted proton beam impacts on a cylindrical copper target. The shielding of the CHARM facility includes the CERN Shielding Benchmark Facility (CSBF) situated laterally above the target that allows deep shielding penetration benchmark studies of various shielding materials. This facility has been significantly upgraded during the extended technical stop at the beginning of 2016. It consists now of 40 cm of cast iron shielding, a 200 cm long removable sample holder concrete block with 3 inserts for activation samples, a material test location that is used for the measurement of the attenuation length for different shielding materials as well as for sample activation at different thicknesses of the shielding materials. Activation samples of bismuth, aluminium and indium were placed in the CSBF in September 2016 to characterize the upgraded version of the CSBF. Monte Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code have been performed to estimate the specific production yields of bismuth isotopes (206Bi, 205Bi, 204Bi, 203Bi, 202Bi, 201Bi) from 209Bi, 24Na from 27Al and 115mI from 115I for these samples. The production yields estimated by FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations are compared to the production yields obtained from γ-spectroscopy measurements of the samples taking the beam intensity profile into account. The agreement between FLUKA predictions and γ-spectroscopy measurements for the production yields is at a level of a factor of 2.

Study of the crystal device for deflecting high-energy proton beams using synchrotron radiation diffraction

Currently, bent silicon single crystals are used at large accelerators to extract and collimate proton beams. A device for multiple deflection of a proton beam based on several bent silicon strips operating in the volume reflection mode has recently been developed. In this device, the bending of silicon strips successively located on the surface of a thick plate is implemented due to the internal stress induced by grooves mechanically formed on the crystal surface (Twyman effect). Topography based on angular scanning and synchrotron radiation was applied to measure the bending of individual deflector strips and the crystal as a whole. The measurement results are compared with the data obtained with a proton beam.

Knockout of deuterons and tritons with large transverse momenta in pA collisions involving 50-GeV protons

Formation of the d and t cumulative light nuclear fragments emitted from the nucleus with large transverse momenta at an angle of 35° in the laboratory frame is investigated. The data on collisions of 50-GeV protons with the C, Al, Cu, and W nuclei are collected using the extracted proton beam of the IHEP accelerator and the SPIN detector. The results indicate that the dominant contribution to formation of nuclear fragments comes from the local process of direct knockout from the nucleus.

A study of collimation and extraction of the U-70 accelerator beam using an axially oriented crystal

Extraction and collimation of the 50-GeV proton beam with a bent silicon crystal at the U-70 accelerator of the Institute for High Energy Physics (Protvino, Russia) was investigated. Until recently, proton beam extraction (and collimation) from accelerators has been effected using crystals with the (111) or (110) plane orientation, when the beam propagates far from the crystal axes. In the described experiment, the silicon crystal was oriented so that the proton beam was incident on it near the 〈110〉 axis. Under these conditions, a part of the beam was deflected by the crystal owing to the dynamic chaos phenomenon. The maximum beam extraction efficiency was as high as ~80%.

RF control hardware design for CYCIAE-100 cyclotron

The Beijing Radioactive Ion-beam Facility project is being constructed by BRIF division of China Institute of Atomic Energy. In this project, a 100MeV high intensity compact proton cyclotron is built for multiple applications. The first successful beam extraction of CYCIAE-100 cyclotron was done in the middle of 2014. The extracted proton beam energy is 100MeV and the beam current is more than 20μA. The RF system of the CYCIAE-100 cyclotron includes two half-wavelength cavities, two 100kW tetrode amplifiers and power transmission line systems (all above are independent from each other) and two sets of Low Level RF control crates. Each set of LLRF control includes an amplitude control unit, a tuning control unit, a phase control unit, a local Digital Signal Process control unit and an Advanced RISC Machines based EPICS IOC unit. These two identical LLRF control crates share one common reference clock and take advantages of modern digital technologies (e.g. DSP and Direct Digital Synthesizer) to achieve closed loop voltage and phase regulations of the dee-voltage. In the beam commission, the measured dee-voltage stability of RF system is better than 0.1% and phase stability is better than 0.03°. The hardware design of the LLRF system will be reviewed in this paper.

Tomography of Horizontal Phase Space Distribution of a Slow Extracted Proton Beam in the MedAustron High Energy Beam Transfer Line

MedAustron is a synchrotron based hadron therapy and research center in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, which currently is under commissioning for the first patient treatment. The High Energy Beam Transfer Line (HEBT) consists of multiple functional modules amongst which the phase-shifterstepper PSS is the most important module located where the dispersion from the synchrotron is zero and upstream of the switching magnet to the first irradiation room. The PSS is used to control the beam size for the downstream modules and for this scope rotates the beam in horizontal phase space by adjusting the phase advance. This functionality is used in this study to measure beam profiles for multiple phase space angles which act as input for a tomographic reconstruction. Simulation and measurement results are presented.

Thermal distribution of a carbon foil used to extract a 30-MeV proton beam

Modern cyclotron technology employs negative hydrogen (H−) ion acceleration and positive hydrogen (H+) ion (proton) extraction using a carbon foil, which strips two electrons. The stripping efficiency depends on the thickness of the carbon foils. Typically, a 100-µg/cm2 carbon foil extracting 30-MeV protons at beam currents up to 250 µ A has a lifetime of ∼120 h (∼30,000 µAh accumulated current). However, the lifetime was found to be short when the cooling was poor during beam irradiation. Therefore, the high thermal power dissipated in the foil by charged particles (both protons and electrons) will be a serious problem for high current extractions during long-run operation. In this research, the thermal distribution of carbon foils for both protons and electrons is analyzed for extracting proton currents up to 1 mA. An optimized carbon foil will be discussed for the sake of extending lifetime expected ∼100 hours or longer at a 1-mA extraction. Thickness ranges of the strippers from 10 to 1,000 µg/cm2 are investigated by estimating the peak temperatures reached on the foils during proton-beam extraction. Reducing the peak temperatures calculated by modeling may be possible by decreasing the foil thickness, enlarging the beam size, and effectively reducing the ion-induced heat.

Development of microwave ion source and low energy beam transport system for high current cyclotron

A 2.45GHz microwave ion source and a low energy beam transport system have been developed to study the high intensity proton beam injection into a 10MeV, 5mA compact cyclotron. We have extracted proton beam more than 10mA at 80kV as measured by the DCCT after the extraction and a well collimated beam of 7mA (through 1cm×1cm slit) at the faraday cup 1.5m away from the source. The transport of protons from the ion source in the presence of H2+, H3+ species has been studied using PIC simulations through our transport line which consists of two solenoids. We have also installed a small dipole magnet with similar field as that of the cyclotron along with vacuum chamber, spiral inflector and few diagnostic elements at the end of the beam line. In the preliminary testing of inflection, we achieved 1mA beam on the faraday cup at the exit of inflector with ∼60% transmission efficiency.

Observation and comparative analysis of proton beam extraction or collimation by different planar channels of a bent crystal

In the experiment the efficiency of the 50 GeV proton beam extraction from accelerator by means of a bent crystal as a function of crystal orientation was measured. This allowed one to make a comparative analysis of efficiencies of high-energy protons deflection by different crystal atomic planes with different values of the electrostatic field. The results of simulation of high-energy protons deflection by means of crystal atomic planes and crystal atomic strings are also presented in the article. In the case of planar channeling the simulation shows a good agreement with experimental data. In the case of proton motion in the regime of stochastic scattering by bent atomic strings the simulation shows that angles of particle deflection are much greater than the critical channeling angle.

Measurements of beam current density and proton fraction of a permanent-magnet microwave ion source

A permanent-magnet microwave ion source has been built for use in a high-yield, compact neutron generator. The source has been designed to produce up to 100 mA of deuterium and tritium ions. The electron-cyclotron resonance condition is met at a microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz and a magnetic field strength of 87.5 mT. The source operates at a low hydrogen gas pressure of about 0.15 Pa. Hydrogen beams with a current density of 40 mA/cm(2) have been extracted at a microwave power of 450 W. The dependence of the extracted proton beam fraction on wall materials and operating parameters was measured and found to vary from 45% for steel to 95% for boron nitride as a wall liner material.

Development of radiation medicine at DLNP, JINR

The Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems’ activity is aimed at developing three directions in radiation medicine: 3D conformal proton therapy, accelerator techniques for proton and carbon treatment of tumors, and new types of detector systems for spectrometric computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET). JINR and IBA have developed and constructed the medical proton cyclotron C235-V3. At present, all basic cyclotron systems have been built. We plan to assemble this cyclotron at JINR in 2011 and perform tests with the extracted proton beam in 2012. A superconducting isochronous cyclotron C400 has been designed by the IBA-JINR collaboration. This cyclotron will be used for radiotherapy with proton, helium and carbon ions. The 12C6+ and 4He2+ ions will be accelerated to an energy of 400 MeV/amu, the protons will be extracted at the energy 265 MeV. The construction of the C400 cyclotron was started in 2010 within the framework of the Archarde project (France). Development of spectrometric CT tomographs may allow one to determine the chemical composition of a substance together with the density, measured using traditional CT. This may advance modern diagnostic methods significantly. JINR develops fundamentally new pixel detector systems for spectrometric CT. The time-of-flight (TOF) system installed in the positron emission tomograph (PET) permits essential reduction in the detector noise from occasional events of different positron annihilations. The micropixel avalanche photodiodes (MAPDs) developed at JINR allow a factor of 1.5 reduction in the resolution time for the PET TOF system and suppression of the noise level as compared to commercial PET. The development of a combined PET/MRI is of considerable medical interest, but it cannot be made with the existing PET tomographs based on detectors of compact photomultipliers due to strong alternating magnetic field of MRI. Change-over to detectors of micropixel avalanche photodiodes permits making a combined PET/MRI.

Carbon–silicon stripper foils

TRIUMF operates several high power industrial cyclotrons for the commercial production of isotopes for radiological diagnostics and therapy. Two of these accelerators, TR30-1 and TR30-2, are capable of delivering H− beams of 30MeV and beam currents in excess of 1000μA. For many years, in-house produced diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils of various compositions have been utilized to extract proton beams from these cyclotrons (Zeisler and Jaggi, 2008) [1].The TRIUMF Carbon Foil Laboratory, now incorporated as MicromatterTM, uses pulsed laser deposition to fabricate DLC films in a wide thickness range (from 10nm to ∼10μm). More recently, we reported the production of DLC foils containing boron (Zeisler and Jaggi, 2010) [2]. Carbon–boron multilayer foils have outstanding mechanical stability and show an extended lifetime in high intensity proton beams. In an attempt to further enhance the quality of our beam strippers, we investigated the production of carbon–silicon multilayer foils.

Physics design of a 70 MeV high intensity cyclotron, CYCIAE-70

This paper introduces the physics design of a 70 MeV high intensity cyclotron at China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), which is aimed for multiple uses including radioactive ion-beam (RIB) production. The machine adopts a compact structure of four straight sectors, capable of accelerating two kinds of beams, i.e. H − and D − . The proton and deuteron beam will be extracted in dual opposite directions by charge exchange stripping devices. The energy of the extracted proton beam is in the range 35–70 MeV with an intensity up to 700 μA. The corresponding values for the deuteron beam are 18–33 MeV and 40 μA. This paper will present the main characteristics and parameters in the design of the 70 MeV cyclotron, the results of the basic beam dynamics study, as well as the physics in the design of the different systems, including the main magnet, RF, injection and extraction systems, etc.