High Intensity Proton Accelerator Research Articles

Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Superconducting RF Cavity Fabrication, Processing and 2 K Characterization at RRCAT

An extensive infrastructure facility is being established at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) for a proposed 1 GeV, high intensity superconducting proton linac for Indian Spallation Neutron Source. The proton linac will comprise of a large number of superconducting Radio Frequency (SCRF) cavities ranging from low beta spoke resonators to medium and high beta multi-cell elliptical cavities at different RF frequencies. Infrastructure facilities for SCRF cavity fabrication, processing and performance characterization at 2 K are setup to take-up manufacturing of large number of cavities required for future projects of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). RRCAT is also participating in a DAE’s approved mega project on “Physics and Advanced technology for High intensity Proton Accelerators” under Indian Institutions-Fermilab Collaboration (IIFC). In the R&D phase of IIFC program, a number of high beta, fully dressed multi-cell elliptical SCRF cavities will be developed in collaboration with Fermilab. A dedicated facility for SCRF cavity fabrication, tuning and processing is set up. SCRF cavities developed will be characterized at 2K using a vertical test stand facility, which is already commissioned. A Horizontal Test Stand facility has also been designed and under development for testing a dressed multi-cell SCRF cavity at 2K. The paper presents the infrastructure facilities setup at RRCAT for SCRF cavity fabrication, processing and testing at 2K.

Cesiated surface H− ion source: optimization studies

The H− ion beam intensity required for high-energy and high-intensity proton accelerators is continuously increasing. The required 95%-beam transverse normalized root mean square emittance (ε95%rnmsx/y) of the beam is around 0.25 πmm mrad for all accelerators. The Japan Proton Accelerator Complex (J-PARC) 400 MeV linear accelerator (LINAC) succeeded in accelerating the world’s highest-class H− ion beam of 50 mA with a cesiated RF-driven H− ion source. This was achieved by increasing the beam brightness through the following measures:(1) 45°-tapered plasma electrode (PE) with a 16 mm thickness to increase beam intensity by 56%,(2) continuous-wave igniter plasma driven by 50 W 30 MHz RF to reduce hydrogen pressure in the plasma chamber (PCH) by 50% and beam loss in low-energy beam transport by 12%, compared with that by the commonly used 300 W 13.56 MHz RF,(3) axial magnetic-field correction around the PE beam aperture to increase beam intensity by a maximum of 15%,(4) operation at a low PE temperature (TPE) of about 70 °C to reduce ε95%nrmsx/y by 27%,(5) suitable beam apertures of the plasma and the extraction electrodes to increase beam intensity by a maximum of 7% and to reduce ε95%nrmsx/y by more than 4%,(6) argon/nitrogen elimination and 39% filter-field reduction to reduce ε95%nrmsx/y by 9% and the required 2 MHz RF power by around 30%,(7) eight-hours conditioning with a 50 kW 2 MHz RF and a 5% (1 ms × 50 Hz) duty factor to reduce ε95%nrmsx/y by 15%, and(8) slight water molecules (H2Os) feeding in hydrogen to avoid ε95%nrmsx/y increase by 72% and divergence angle expansion by 50%.In the studies, we investigated principally the 66 mA H− ion beams extracted from the source in order to achieve a 50 mA beam at the J-PARC LINAC exit regardless of the beam’s brightness. Consequently, the source can produce the required beam for a 60 mA J-PARC LINAC operation, since the world’s brightest-class beam with the ε95%nrmsx/y of 0.23 πmm mrad and beam intensity of 66 mA is successfully produced through the above measures.

Induced radioactivity studies of the shielding and beamline equipment of the high intensity proton accelerator facility at PSI

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is the largest national research center in Switzerland. Its multidisciplinary research is dedicated to a wide ↓eld in natural science and technology as well as particle physics. The High Intensity Proton Accelerator Facility (HIPA) has been in operation at PSI since 1974. It includes an 870 keV Cockroft-Walton pre-accelerator, a 72 MeV injector cyclotron as well as a 590 MeV ring cyclotron. The experimental facilities, the meson production graphite targets, Target E and Target M, and the spallation target stations (SINQ and UCN) are used for material research and particle physics. In order to ful↓ll the request of the regulatory authorities and to be reported to the regulators, the expected radioactive waste and nuclide inventory after an anticipated ↓nal shutdown in the far future has to be estimated. In this contribution, calculations for the 20 m long beamline between Target E and the 590 MeV beam dump of HIPA are presented. The ↓rst step in the calculations was determining spectra and spatial particle distributions around the beamlines using the Monte-Carlo particle transport code MCNPX2.7.0 [1]. To perform the analysis of the MCNPX output and to determine the radionuclide inventory as well as the speci↓c activity of the nuclides, an activation script [2] using the FISPACT10 code with the cross sections from the European Activation File (EAF2010) [3] was applied. The speci↓c activity values were compared to the currently existing Swiss exemption limits (LE) [4] as well as to the Swiss liberation limits (LL) [5], becoming e↑ective in the near future. The obtained results were used to estimate the total volume of the radioactive waste produced at HIPA and have to be reported to the Swiss regulatory authorities. The comparison of the performed calculations to measurements is discussed as well.

Fringe field interference of neighbor magnets in China spallation neutron source

In CSNS accelerator construction, the field measurement of all RCS magnets have been finished and the magnets have been installed in the tunnel before the end of 2015. The electromagnetic quadrupoles have a large aperture and the core-to-core distance between magnets is rather short in some places. The corrector magnet or the sextupole magnet is closer to one of the quadrupole magnets which caused certain interference. The interference caused by magnetic fringe field has been appeared and it becomes a significant issue in beam dynamics for beam loss control in this high-intensity proton accelerator. We have performed 3D computing simulations to study integral field distributions between the quadrupole and the corrector magnets, and the sextupole and the other quadrupole magnets. The effect of the magnetic fringe field and the interference has been investigated with different distances of the neighbor magnets. The simulation and the field measurement results will be introduced in this paper.

Experimental investigation of the radiation shielding efficiency of a MCP detector in the radiation environment near Jupiter’s moon Europa

Neutral Ion Mass spectrometer (NIM) is one of the instruments in the Particle Environmental Package (PEP) designed for the JUICE mission of ESA to the Jupiter system. NIM, equipped with a sensitive MCP ion detector, will conduct detailed measurements of the chemical composition of Jovian icy moons exospheres. To achieve high sensitivity of the instrument, radiation effects due to the high radiation background (high-energy electrons and protons) around Jupiter have to be minimised. We investigate the performance of an Al–Ta–Al composite stack as a potential shielding against high-energy electrons. Experiments were performed at the PiM1 beam line of the High Intensity Proton Accelerator Facilities located at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. The facility delivers a particle beam containing e−, μ− and π− with momentum from 17.5 to 345MeV/c (Hajdas et al., 2014). The measurements of the radiation environment generated during the interaction of primary particles with the Al–Ta–Al material were conducted with dedicated beam diagnostic methods and with the NIM MCP detector. In parallel, modelling studies using GEANT4 and GRAS suites were performed to identify products of the interaction and predict ultimate fluxes and particle rates at the MCP detector. Combination of experiment and modelling studies yields detailed characterisation of the radiation fields produced by the interaction of the incident e− with the shielding material in the range of the beam momentum from 17.5 to 345MeV/c. We derived the effective MCP detection efficiency to primary and secondary radiation and effective shielding transmission coefficients to incident high-energy electron beam in the range of applied beam momenta. This study shows that the applied shielding attenuates efficiently high-energy electrons. Nevertheless, owing to nearly linear increase of the bremsstrahlung production rate with incident beam energy, above 130MeV their detection rates measured by the MCP detector compares to the MCP rate of the incident electron beam. We define key performance parameters for the shielding and show direction of its improvements by introducing additional layer of material to attenuate γ-rays and reduce the MCP sensitivity to the penetrating radiation. The experiments also verify the predictions by modelling tools used currently for optimisation of shielding against high-energy particles.

Beam acceleration through proton radio frequency quadrupole accelerator in BARC

A 3 MeV proton Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator has been designed at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India, for the Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator (LEHIPA) programme. The 352 MHz RFQ is built in 4 segments and in the first phase two segments of the LEHIPA RFQ were commissioned, accelerating a 50 keV, 1 mA pulsed proton beam from the ion source, to an energy of 1.24 MeV. The successful operation of the RFQ gave confidence in the physics understanding and technology development that have been achieved, and indicate that the road forward can now be traversed rather more quickly.

Particle Accelerators in China

As the special machines that can accelerate charged particle beams to high energy by using electromagnetic fields, particle accelerators have been widely applied in scientific research and various areas of society. The development of particle accelerators in China started in the early 1950s. After a brief review of the history of accelerators, this article describes in the following sections: particle colliders, heavy-ion accelerators, high-intensity proton accelerators, accelerator-based light sources, pulsed power accelerators, small scale accelerators, accelerators for applications, accelerator technology development and advanced accelerator concepts. The prospects of particle accelerators in China are also presented.

Neutrino physics with accelerator driven subcritical reactors

Accelerator driven system (ADS) subcritical nuclear reactors are under development around the world. They will be intense sources of free, 30-50 MeV antimuon decay at rest antimuon neutrinos. These ADS reactor neutrinos can provide a robust test of the LSND anomaly and a precise measurement of the leptonic CP-violating phase delta, including sign(cos(delta)). The first phase of many ADS programs includes the construction of a low energy, high intensity proton or deuteron accelerator, which can yield competitive bounds on sterile neutrinos.

Thermal analysis and neutron production characteristics of a lowpower copper beam dump-cum-target for LEHIPA

Monte Carlo simulations of heat deposition and neutron production have been carried out for the low power beam dump-cum-target for the 20 MeV Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator (LEHIPA) facility at BARC using GEANT4 and FLUKA. Thermal analysis and heat transfer calculations have also been carried out using the computational fluid dynamics code CFD ACE+. In this work we present the details of the analysis of the low power beam dump-cum-target designed for conditioning of the accelerator upto a maximum power of 600 kW with a duty cycle of 2% which corresponds to an average power of 12 kW in the first phase.

Beam halo studies in LEHIPA DTL

The Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator (LEHIPA) project at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) consists of a 20 MeV, 30 mA proton linac. The accelerator comprises of a 3 MeV Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) and a 20 MeV Drift Tube Linac (DTL). In such high intensity accelerators, beam halos are of concern as they not only cause an increase in emittance, but also lead to beam loss and radio activation. We have studied the effect of beam mismatch at the DTL input on halo formation and propagation. The particle core model is used to excite the three envelope eigen modes; the quadrupole mode, the fast mode and the slow mode by giving input beam mismatch. These modes get damped as the beam progresses through the DTL. The damping mechanism is clearly Landau damping and leads to increase in rms emittance of the beam. The evolution of these modes and the corresponding increase in beam emittance and maximum beam extent, as the beam propagates through the DTL, has been studied for different space charge tunes. The halo parameter based on the definition of Allen and Wangler has been calculated. It is seen that beam halos are very important for LEHIPA DTL, even at 20 MeV and leads to emittance and beam size increase and also to beam loss in some cases. The longitudinal halo is present even without mismatch and transverse halos arise in the presence of beam mismatch.

Detection efficiency of microchannel plates for e(-) and π(-) in the momentum range from 17.5 to 345 MeV/c.

High-energy e(-) and π(-) were measured by the multichannel plate (MCP) detector at the PiM1 beam line of the High Intensity Proton Accelerator Facilities located at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. The measurements provide the absolute detection efficiencies for these particles: 5.8% ± 0.5% for electrons in the beam momenta range 17.5-300 MeV/c and 6.0% ± 1.3% for pions in the beam momenta range 172-345 MeV/c. The pulse height distribution determined from the measurements is close to an exponential function with negative exponent, indicating that the particles penetrated the MCP material before producing the signal somewhere inside the channel. Low charge extraction and nominal gains of the MCP detector observed in this study are consistent with the proposed mechanism of the signal formation by penetrating radiation. A very similar MCP ion detector will be used in the Neutral Ion Mass (NIM) spectrometer designed for the JUICE mission of European Space Agency (ESA) to the Jupiter system, to perform measurements of the chemical composition of the Galilean moon exospheres. The detection efficiency for penetrating radiation determined in the present studies is important for the optimisation of the radiation shielding of the NIM detector against the high-rate and high-energy electrons trapped in Jupiter's magnetic field. Furthermore, the current studies indicate that MCP detectors can be useful to measure high-energy particle beams at high temporal resolution.

Wide energy bandwidth superconducting accelerating cavities

Superconducting cavities have been widely used in high intensity proton accelerators. In this paper, we discuss parameters that affect energy bandwidth of the accelerating cavity and propose a new energy averaged transit time factor to help choose transition energy between different sections and cavity geometry parameters in the linac design. These wide energy bandwidth superconducting cavities can potentially be used to accelerate a proton beam multiple times. A time-pass condition is defined to attain fixed RF phases during multiple passes of the beam. Such a superconducting recirculating proton linac could significantly reduce the number of RF cavities in the accelerator and lower construction and operational costs of the facility.

Emittance and proton fraction measurement in High current electron cyclotron resonance proton ion source

The beam characterization studies in terms of emittance and proton fraction have been carried out in the high current Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) proton ion source developed for Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator (LEHIPA). The beam emittance was measured using two slit emittance measurement units (EMU). The emittance was measured at three locations (1) after beam extraction at ion source end, (2) after focusing the beam using solenoid magnet and (3) after focusing and separating H+ using solenoid magnet and analyzing magnet. The beam emittance measured in all three cases was found to be less than 0.2πmm-mrad (rms-normalized). The proton fraction in the beam measured using analyzing magnet was found to be more than 90%. The variations of beam emittance and proton fraction have been studied as a function of microwave power and neutral gas pressure.

Vibration research of the AC dipole-girder system for CSNS/RCS

The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is a high intensity proton accelerator based facility. Its accelerator complex includes two main parts: an H− linac and a rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS). The RCS accumulates the 80 MeV proton beam and accelerates it to 1.6 GeV, with a repetition rate of 25 Hz. The AC dipole of the CSNS/RCS is operated at a 25 Hz sinusoidal alternating current which causes severe vibration. The vibration will influence the long-term safety and reliable operation of the magnet. The dipole magnet of CSNS/RCS is an active vibration equipment, which is different from the ground vibration accelerator. It is very important to design and study the dynamic characteristics of the dipole-girder system. This paper takes the AC dipole and girder as a specific model system. A method for studying the dynamic characteristics of the system is put forward by combining theoretical calculation with experimental testing. The ANSYS simulation method plays a very important role in the girder structure design stage. With this method, the mechanical resonance phenomenon was avoided in the girder design time. At the same time the dipole vibratory force will influence the other equipment through the girder. Since it is necessary to isolate and decrease the dipole vibration, a new isolator was designed to isolate the vibratory force and decrease the vibration amplitude of the magnet.

Performance characteristics of HBC stripper foils irradiated by 650 keV H− and high intensity DC ion beams

Newly developed Hybrid type Boron mixed Carbon (HBC) stripper foils are extensively used not only for the RCS of J-PARC and PSR of LANL, but also for other low energy, high intensity proton accelerators in medical applications. We had before tested HBC stripper foils with 3.2MeV Ne+ and DC heavy ion beams.In order to further understand characteristics of HBC stripper foils, we measured the following parameters using the KEK-650keV H− and light ion Cockcroft Walton DC accelerator: foil lifetime, thickness reduction, uniformity before and after beam irradiation, and foil deformation. Energy deposition in the present experiment was adjusted to a similar level to that of the HBC foil used in the RCS of J-PARC’. In addition, to understand the reason why the HBC stripper foils have high durability against high intensity beam irradiation, we investigated various physical properties, and compared them between the HBC foils and other tested carbon stripper foils.The sizes of the carbon particles in the HBC foil were found to play a vital role in the lifetime.

Beam extraction and high stability operation of high current electron cyclotron resonance proton ion source

A high current electron cyclotron resonance proton ion source is designed and developed for the low energy high intensity proton accelerator at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The plasma discharge in the ion source is stabilized by minimizing the reflected microwave power using four stub auto tuner and magnetic field. The optimization of extraction geometry is performed using PBGUNS code by varying the aperture, shape, accelerating gap, and the potential on the electrodes. While operating the source, it was found that the two layered microwave window (6 mm quartz plate and 2 mm boron nitride plate) was damaged (a fine hole was drilled) by the back-streaming electrons after continuous operation of the source for 3 h at beam current of 20-40 mA. The microwave window was then shifted from the line of sight of the back-streaming electrons and located after the water-cooled H-plane bend. In this configuration the stable operation of the high current ion source for several hours is achieved. The ion beam is extracted from the source by biasing plasma electrode, puller electrode, and ground electrode to +10 to +50 kV, -2 to -4 kV, and 0 kV, respectively. The total ion beam current of 30-40 mA is recorded on Faraday cup at 40 keV of beam energy at 600-1000 W of microwave power, 800-1000 G axial magnetic field and (1.2-3.9) × 10(-3) mbar of neutral hydrogen gas pressure in the plasma chamber. The dependence of beam current on extraction voltage, microwave power, and gas pressure is investigated in the range of operation of the ion source.

Performance of the beam collimation system in the J-PARC RCS

The most important issue in a high intensity proton accelerator is to keep the accelerator tunnel in a hands-on-maintenance condition. A collimation system was designed and installed in 3GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) to be localized the beam loss point to a restricted area. The experimental results indicated that the RCS collimation system performs well enough such that nearly all the ring components are maintained in good condition. However, as the beam power increased, unexpected losses downstream of the injection foil increased. Therefore, an additional collimator was installed that successfully reduced such unexpected losses.

强流质子加速器PXIe控制器的子控制系统

强流质子加速器PXIe控制器的子控制系统

Sub-control system based on PXIe controller for high intensity proton accelerator

Sub-control system based on PXIe controller for high intensity proton accelerator

Comparative electromagnetic analysis of ridge waveguide transitions for RF power couplers

Ridge waveguide transitions have been used in the high power couplers of many ongoing high intensity proton accelerator projects worldwide. Because of their smaller size and high energy densities, they require strict dimensional tolerances during fabrication and operating conditions. In order to study their electromagnetic characteristics, two different types of transitions with a straight ridge and a tapered ridge are compared using full wave simulations. Apart from the return loss and resonant frequency variation with dimensions, comparative studies on the phase shift, insertion losses, electric and magnetic field distributions and multipacting are also reported. This analysis will be useful in selecting the appropriate ridge waveguide transition for the RF couplers of accelerator cavities.