Heavy Ion Accelerator Research Articles

Design and field measurement of dipole magnets for a 300-MeV proton and heavy ion synchrotron in SESRI

Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure (SESRI) is a new national research infrastructure under construction at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in China. Its 300-MeV proton and heavy ion accelerator is a major radiation source, and a compact synchrotron has been designed with a circumference of less than 44 m. The synchrotron dipoles are essential components of the accelerator, and they have been designed and tested carefully to meet the stringent physical requirements. The measured transverse field homogeneity is less than 2 × 10-4 from 0.2 T to 1.4 T and roughly agrees with the simulated results. With a modified linear programming algorithm, the integral magnetic field uniformity within 0.2–1.1 T is optimised from 6 × 10-4 to 1.5 × 10-4, and the corresponding multi-pole field-component errors are greatly reduced. By shortening the pole ends, the reproducibility of integral field among six magnets at 0.2 T is less than 3 × 10-4. In addition, the transient effect of the magnetic field is also evaluated and tested. Through analysis of the transient effect and structural strength, low-carbon steel and stainless steel are selected for the side plates and end plates, respectively. According to the transient measurement results, the feedforward compensation can be implemented to produce a more accurate current waveform. On 1 January 2022, the beam was successfully accumulated with the preset current waveform, and the beam intensity met the design requirements.

Plasmoids in the Jovian Magnetotail: Statistical Survey of Ion Acceleration Using Juno Observations

AbstractTransient magnetic reconnection plays an important role in energetic particle acceleration in planetary magnetospheres. Jupiter's magnetosphere provides a unique natural laboratory to study processes of energy transport and transformation. Strong electric fields in spatially confined structures such as plasmoids can be responsible for ion acceleration to high energies. In this study we focus on the effectiveness of ion energization and acceleration in plasmoids. Therefore, we present a statistical study of plasmoid structures in the predawn magnetotail, which were identified in the magnetometer data of the Juno spacecraft from 2016 to 2018. We additionally use the energetic particle observations from the Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument which discriminates between different ion species. We are particularly interested in the analysis of the acceleration and energization of oxygen, sulfur, helium, and hydrogen ions. We investigate how the event properties, such as the radial distance and the local time of the observed plasmoids in the magnetotail, affect the ion intensities close to the current sheet center. Furthermore, we analyze if ion acceleration is influenced by magnetic field turbulence inside the plasmoids. We find significant heavy ion acceleration in plasmoids close to the current sheet center which is in line with the previous statistical results based on Galileo observations conducted by Kronberg et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026553). The observed effectiveness of the acceleration is dependent on the position of Juno in the magnetotail during the plasmoid event observation. Our results show no correlation between magnetic field turbulence and nonadiabatic acceleration for heavy ions during plasmoids.

Development of a beam energy adjustment system after a Radio-Frequency-Quadrupole

The Low Energy heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (LEAF) is a low-energy, high-intensity, heavy ion accelerator for multidisciplinary research developed at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). Beam commissioning of the facility began in 2018, but until recently, only a fixed beam energy of 0.5 MeV/u was available because the main accelerator structure is a Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ), which hinders LEAF to meet the requirements of the experimental terminals, for example, 12C+12C fusion reaction investigation at astrophysical energies requires beam energies adjustable from 0.3 MeV/u to 0.7 MeV/u. To expand the beam energy range, a “constant-beta” structure Drift Tube Linac (DTL) was developed providing an adjustable beam energy from 0.3 to 0.7 MeV/u. To control the beam quality, specifically the energy spread, two re-bunchers are employed, one upstream and one downstream of the DTL. Here we present the development of the key device: an Interdigital H-mode DTL (IH-DTL). First, we discuss the beam dynamics design for the beam energy adjustment system, then we present details of the test bench, and finally, we report measurements performed with the finished hardware. The measurements of energy adjustment and energy spread agree well with the simulations, demonstrating the feasibility of this design.

Design study of a single bunch selection method for neutron TOF experiment at RAON heavy ion accelerator

To enable neutron time-of-flight (TOF) experiments at the RAON heavy-ion accelerator facility, we propose a single bunch beam selection method by combining a fast chopper and double gap buncher in the low-energy beam transport (LEBT) section. The fast chopper operates with switching times of tens of ns to convert a CW beam into a pulsed beam.Then, the double gap buncher performs bunching to shorten the beam pulse duration to less than one radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) cycle.Ideally, a single isolated bunch can be achieved after the RFQ.In this study, we discuss the system design of the proposed single bunch selection scheme and present detailed beam dynamics simulations.

An engineering geological suitability comprehensive evaluation index (EGSCEI) for large-scale infrastructure site selection

The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative method for evaluating the engineering geological suitability of potential sites in order to select the optimal site for large-scale infrastructure. Based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation decision method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP), an engineering geological suitability comprehensive evaluation index (EGSCEI) model was applied in the selection of a site for the construction of the China Initiative Accelerator-Driven System (CiADS) and the High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF). In this model, seven parameters, including land use, geomorphology, geological structure, lithology, hydrogeology, geological disaster and rock weathering, were selected as the evaluation factors. The factor evaluation matrices were established, and the weight vector of the seven factors was determined using the AHP. The engineering geological suitability fuzzy comprehensive evaluation vectors were then computed. Finally, according to the normalized engineering geological suitability comprehensive evaluation vectors and the quantified evaluation ranking vector, the EGSCEI values were calculated. As a result, site No. 3 was evaluated as the most optimal site of the three potential sites for the construction of the CiADS and HIAF. The result was adopted by the Chinese government, and site No. 3 became the selected location. This case study shows that the EGSCEI model is scientific, reasonable and applicable in providing a reference for similar large-scale infrastructure site selection.

Production of intense pulsed beams of highly charged ions from a superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source

An experimental study of the afterglow mode was performed with a third generation electron cyclotron resonance ion source, SECRAL-II (Superconducting ECR ion source with Advanced design in Lanzhou No. II), under double frequency heating. The experimental results show that intense pulsed beams of highly charged ions (e.g., $266\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{e}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{A}$ of ${^{129}\mathrm{Xe}}^{34+}$ and $169\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{e}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{A}$ of ${^{129}\mathrm{Xe}}^{38+}$) could be produced at high frequency ($24+18\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$) and high power ($\ensuremath{\sim}8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kW}$), even compared with the beam intensity records of SECRAL-II obtained in continuous wave (cw) mode at higher microwave frequency ($28+18\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$) and higher power ($\ensuremath{\sim}10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kW}$), the gain factor is also up to $\ensuremath{\sim}3$. Meanwhile, it is found that the afterglow decay time in our study is much longer than that obtained with the second generation ECR ion sources typically operating at 10--18 GHz, and the corresponding peak duration is greater than 2 ms. This study provides a viable solution for heavy ion synchrotron accelerator complex such as High Intensity Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility project that requires intense pulsed beams of highly charged ions with long peak duration.

Continuous wave interdigital H-mode cavities for alternating phase focusing heavy ion acceleration.

In the future, a new superconducting (SC) continuous wave (CW) high intensity heavy ion HElmholtz LInear ACcelerator (HELIAC) should provide ion beams with maximum beam energy above the Coulomb barrier for the Super Heavy Element program at GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, in Engl.: Association for Heavy Ion Research). The HELIAC consists of a SC main accelerator supplied by a normal conducting injector, which comprises an electron cyclotron resonance ion source, a radio-frequency quadrupole, and two separate interdigital H-mode drift-tube linear accelerator cavities, based on an Alternating Phase Focusing (APF) scheme. Together, both cavities will accelerate ions from 300 to 1400 keV/u with only one external quadrupole triplet for transverse focusing in between. Due to the demanding requirements of the APF concept on the voltage distribution along the beam axis on the one hand and the CW operation on the other hand, the optimization of each cavity concerning RF, mechanical, and thermal properties is crucial for the successful operation of the HELIAC injector.

A new digital beam position and phase measurement implementation based on a field programmable gate array for the high intensity heavy-ion accelerator iLinac.

A new digital beam position and phase measurement (BPM) system was designed for the ion-Linac accelerator at the high intensity heavy ion accelerator facility. The fundamental and second harmonic signals are retrieved from the BPM electrodes to simultaneously calculate their respective beam positions and phases. All data acquisition and digital signal processing algorithm routines are performed in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The position and phase information are obtained by using the in-phase and quadrature demodulation method. A practical and straightforward method is used to generate the second harmonic reference signal for processing the second harmonic beam signal. The reconfigurable filters are integrated into the FPGA to allow the measurement of short beam pulse length. The laboratory test results show that the achieved phase resolution is better than 0.2° and 0.03° when the input signal is -60 and -45 dBm, respectively. A position resolution better than 30 μm was achieved for an input power level of approximately -60 dBm, and it can reach 7 μm with the input power higher than -45 dBm. The entire execution time of the algorithm is accomplished within 3.4 µs, which provides a sufficient reaction time for the fast beam interlock signal to the machine protection system. The performance of this newly designed prototype BPM electronics was evaluated with the online proton beam.

Electromagnetic Investigation on a Sextupole HTS Magnet for RAON

The rare isotope accelerator complex for online experiments (RAON) is a heavy-ion accelerator equipped with an in-flight fragment separator (IF) system and isotope separation online technique in South Korea. Six quadrupole and a sextupole high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets are installed in the hot cell of the IF system, which is a high radiation region, to arrange the ion beams and correct the chromatic aberrations of the ion beams. The magnets are developed and installed for RAON at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea. Superconducting magnet systems should be capable of a stable operation against high radiation heating and thermally and electromagnetically robust in the intense radioactive hot cell region. In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a sextupole HTS magnet. Electromagnetic designs are conducted considering the position of the HTS magnets and the angle of the yoke pole tip <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> The required design specifications are proposed as a part of RAON of IBS considering the following electromagnetic performance: 1) a magnetic field gradient of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ \geq $</tex-math></inline-formula> 3.9 T/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , 2) magnetic field uniformity of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ &lt; $</tex-math></inline-formula> 0.5%, 3) effective length of 450 ± 1 mm, and 4) operating temperature of ∼ 45 K.

Experimental Demonstration of the Thin-Film Liquid-Metal Jet as a Charge Stripper.

For high-power heavy ion accelerators, the development of a suitable charge stripper, which can handle intense beams, is essential. This Letter describes the first experimental demonstration of a heavy ion liquid lithium charge stripper. A 10-20 μm thick liquid lithium jet flowing at >50 m/s was formed and confirmed stable when bombarded by various heavy ion beams, while increasing the charge state of the incoming beams to the desired charge state range. This demonstration proved the existing power limitation with the conventional strippers can be overcome by the liquid-metal stripper, opening completely new possibilities in high-power accelerator development.

Improvement of Magnet and Cavities cooling at Heavy Ion or Rare Isotopes Accelerators due to Application of sub-cooled Superfluid Helium

Several modern Heavy Ion or Rare Iosotopes Accelerator uses superconducting (sc) cavities for an acceleration of the beam particles. Operation of sc magnets with higher magnetic fields and improved field gradients also leads to a better beam focusing (also called “beam optics”) and improves the overall accelerator compactness. In many accelerators, like XFEL, SNS, LCLS-II, HIE-ISOLDE, ATLAS, ISAC-II/ARIEL, SPIRAL-2, FLASH, Jlab-FEL/ERL, the operation is limited either by cooling capability of sc cavities or refrigeration capacities. In most of the cases, increasing of refrigerator capacities is a challenging task due to available free space or investments, and, therefore, improvement of cavity cooling due to increasing of a quality factor (Q 0) or heat transfer at cavity surfaces is considered. Application of a sub-cooled superfluid (sf) helium gives several advantages, like higher heat flux densities, longer time for onset of a film boiling regime and shorter recovery time, reduced Kapitza resistances, etc. In the present paper, application of sub-cooled superfluid helium for cooling of cavities with half and quarter-wave resonators, which are typically applied at Heavy Ion and Rare Isotopes Accelerators or sometimes at electron and proton ones, is considered. In order to limit the present discussion, its application to FRIB-style cryomodules is discussed in details.

Development of a diagonal-cut type beam position monitor for the booster ring in the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility project

A diagonal-cut type beam position monitor (BPM) has been developed for the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) project at the Institute of Modern Physics. Compared with other types of BPMs, the diagonal-cut type BPM has almost perfect position linearity, i.e., no non-linear correction required, which is advantageous for beams that are transversally large and have a complex charge distribution. The key parameters for the diagonal-cut type BPM have been simulated and optimized in detail and systematically herein. It was found that the crosstalk is improved by ∼10 dB at 160 MHz by insertion of a separate ring between two horizontal or vertical electrodes of the BPM made of stainless steel with vacuum as a dielectric. Furthermore, the longitudinal and transverse numerical simulation to evaluate the beam impedance on the diagonal-cut type BPM has been performed. The results for the crosstalk, position sensitivity, and electrode capacitance to ground obtained from simulations and laboratory measurements agree well. The vacuum of the BPM prototype after baking out at 250 °C for 72 h is better than 1.0 × 10-11 mbar. The simulated and on-line measured BPM output signal magnitude results are consistent with each other. This diagonal-cut type BPM structure will be considered for application to the HIAF project as a priority.

Charge-state resolved laser acceleration of gold ions to beyond 7\xa0MeV/u

In the past years, the interest in the laser-driven acceleration of heavy ions in the mass range of text {A}approx 200 has been increasing due to promising application ideas like the fission-fusion nuclear reaction mechanism, aiming at the production of neutron-rich isotopes relevant for the astrophysical r-process nucleosynthesis. In this paper, we report on the laser acceleration of gold ions to beyond 7 MeV/u, exceeding for the first time an important prerequisite for this nuclear reaction scheme. Moreover, the gold ion charge states have been detected with an unprecedented resolution, which enables the separation of individual charge states up to 4 MeV/u. The recorded charge-state distributions show a remarkable dependency on the target foil thickness and differ from simulations, lacking a straight-forward explanation by the established ionization models.

A novel positioning method for Hall magnetic field measurement of heavy ion accelerator

In the magnetic field measurement of accelerator magnets, the precise positioning of the magnetic field measurement system and the magnet is a basic and very important part. By analyzing the mechanical structure and working principle of Hall magnetic field measurement system, a novel positioning method is proposed in this research for the high-precision and fast positioning of magnet and Hall magnetic field measurement system. By measuring the geometric elements of the magnetic field measurement system and the calibration benchmark of the magnet, the geometric relationship between the magnetic field measurement system and the magnet is established, so as to quickly locate the magnet to the position and attitude required by the magnetic field measurement. The mechanical structure of the Hall probe of the magnetic field measurement system is optimized. Two special ceramic reflectors are installed on the vertical and horizontal axes corresponding to the center of the Hall sensor, and the two ceramic reflectors installed on the Hall probe is monitored with a laser tracker. In this way the Hall sensor can be intuitively positioned at the geometric center of the magnet with an accuracy better than 0.05 mm. In the measurement process, the magnetic field measurement trajectory of Hall sensor in the magnet can also be detected by monitoring the coordinates of ceramic reflector in real time. The practical application in Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure (SESRI) magnet magnetic field measurement show that, compared with the traditional positioning method, the proposed positioning method not only improves the repeatability of Hall magnetic field measurement integral field by nearly 10 times, but also improves the positioning efficiency of magnetic field measurement. These results have verified the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed positioning method.

Preferential Acceleration of Heavy Ions in a Spontaneously Fragmenting Flare Current Sheet

Abstract We study the ion acceleration in a mesoscale, spontaneously fragmenting flare current sheet (SFCS) characterized by the presence of a plasmoid cascade. The main subject of our investigation is to determine whether and how plasmoid cascades at intermediate scales in a fragmented current sheet of a solar flare can impact the (preferential) acceleration of specific ions. The time evolution of the SFCS is obtained from high-resolution 2.5D MHD simulations. The ion trajectories (in the background fields resulting from the MHD model), energies, and pitch angles are calculated using a relativistic test-particle code based on the half-acceleration–rotation–half-acceleration method. For light ions, the main acceleration effects of electromagnetic fields within the SFCS are analyzed using the guiding center approximation. We identify regions with the most-efficient ion acceleration within the SFCS, the accelerator efficiency, and spectra of the accelerated ions. The influence of the charge-to-mass ratio on ion behavior is also studied and resulting ion abundances are compared with observational data. The main ion acceleration takes place in the regions with a strong polarization term, which is part of the first-order Fermi acceleration. Because the term is mass dependent, heavier ions undergo preferential acceleration. The ion energy spectra, abundance-enhancement factors, and differential fluxes, obtained from the model, exhibit power-law profiles, in agreement with observed solar energetic particle events. Nonetheless, the obtained slopes for the abundance-enhancement factor do not exactly match the observed data. The computed slopes and profiles are not sensitive to changes in the initial plasma temperature.

Optimization design and test of the Booster Ring dipole magnet in HIAF

The High-Intensity Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), proposed by the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMP), is being designed to provide primary and radioactive intense beams for nuclear and related research. As an important part of HIAF, the Booster Ring (BRing) is a fast ramping synchrotron and is used to obtain high intensity (238U35+, 1 × 1011 ppp) and high energy (0.835 GeV/u) heavy-ion beam. Moreover, the beam rigidity of the Booster Ring varies widely from 1 Tm to 34 Tm. These require the dipole of Booster Ring to have a large-good field region, a high magnetic field homogeneity, and a wide range of magnetic field variation from 0.047 T to 1.58 T. Aiming at the properties of the dipole magnet, we adopt some new methods to improve magnetic field precision and optimize efficiency. Double symmetrical air holes in the magnet pole are used to guarantee the magnetic field homogeneity under a wide magnetic field range. At the same time, the linear programming algorithm is adopted to optimize the integral magnetic field uniformity of the iron-dominated dipole magnet, which improves the integral magnetic field precision and optimization efficiency. So far, the prototype dipole magnet has been fabricated and tested. Through magnetic field optimization, measurement, and secondary trimming, the measurement results satisfy the physical requirements.

Longitudinal emittance measurement for an external-bunching-based heavy-ion RFQ

Longitudinal emittance at the RFQ output is a very important parameter to determine the particle loss in the subsequent linac. To understand the quality of beams delivered by an external-bunching-based heavy-ion RFQ and to provide key information for High Intensity heavy ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) superconducting linac, longitudinal emittance was measured at the protype of HIAF front-end at Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). An 81.25 MHz quarter wave resonator (QWR) re-buncher was developed and installed behind the RFQ. A voltage scan of the re-buncher and the corresponding bunch length measurement determine the longitudinal emittance. The measurements were implemented for different operation conditions of the pre-buncher which is installed upstream of the RFQ and is a Multi-Harmonic-Buncher (MHB) operating with two frequencies. Measured longitudinal emittance trends for different pre-bunching variants follow those expected from simulation but are systematically lower than estimated. Both simulation and measurement predict a relatively lower emittance while the MHB operating with the RFQ fundamental frequency. The reason has been discussed in this study.

Current status of the RAON low-energy heavy ion accelerator

Current status of the RAON low-energy heavy ion accelerator

On a Novel Topology of Matrix Converter Applied to Accelerator DC Power Supply

The current topology schemes of heavy ion accelerator power supply have serious pollution to the power grid caused by low power factor of the grid side. Considering the characteristics of adjustable power factor and bidirectional energy transfer of the matrix converter, the possibility of which applied to the accelerator DC power supply is studied and three kinds of backup topology schemes including the preceding regulated matrix rectifier (MR) are proposed in this article. Given the actual situation of accelerator power supply, research has been focused on the modulation strategy suitable for the topology of the preceding regulated MR and simulation validation. Based on simulation of the preceding regulated MR scheme, a matrix power prototype is developed. A power factor tester is utilized to test grid side power factor. According to the experimental results, it is prospectively feasible to apply the preceding regulated MR topology to accelerator DC power supply, with excellent performance of the grid side.

IEEE 1588-Based Timing and Triggering Prototype for Distributed Power Supplies in HIAF

In High-Intensity Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), a high precision timing system is necessary because highly synchronous triggering of distributed power supply is essential for the facility operation. To obtain a cost-effective local area timing system, a nanosecond-accuracy private synchronization approach based on IEEE 1588 protocol is proposed. Instead of Ethernet protocol usually used, universal asynchronous transceiver protocol over dedicated optical fiber is applied in the method to avoid the uncertain delay in Ethernet architecture. Besides, the timing system simplifies the communication message formats and increases synchronization frequency to 1 kHz to reduce the timing deviation due to oscillator frequency deviation. The test results show that the implementation ensures a synchronization accuracy of better than &#x00B1;10 nanoseconds with 2ppm temperature-compensation crystal oscillator for dozens of distributed power supply controllers.