Injector Scheme Research Articles

High-brightness electron injectors for high-duty cycle X-ray free electron lasers

The successful development in the last two decades of X-ray free electron lasers (FELs) with their revolutionary brightness performance has been tightly dependent on the parallel development of electron guns and injectors capable of providing the high-brightness electron beams required by FELs lasing at these short wavelengths. The ultimate brightness delivered by a linear accelerator (linac) is already set at its injector and the remaining part of the accelerator can be only designed to preserve the injector performance. The technology to be used for the accelerator part of an X-Ray FEL strongly depends on the duty-cycle at which the FEL operates. Normal-conducting, room-temperature, copper-based radio frequency (RF) technology is typically used for low duty-cycles of up to approximately 10−3. For higher duty-cycles and up to continuous wave (CW) operation, the linac must rely on superconductive RF technology because, with the higher duty-cycle, the increasingly higher power dissipated in normal conducting RF structures becomes excessive for the warm technology. The situation changes in the lower energy part of the accelerator, where injector schemes, based on direct current, normal-conducting, and superconducting RF electron guns, are demonstrating the beam quality performance required by high-duty-cycle X-ray FELs. In this paper we start with a description of the requirements for such injectors, followed by an overview of the pursued technologies and schemes, and by a discussion on the main differences in terms of beam dynamics between low and high duty-cycle injectors.

Numerical simulation of similarities between rotating detonation and high-frequency combustion instability under two mixing schemes

This paper presents an experimental study on rotating detonations in a hollow combustor with the slit-orifice nozzle. The experimental results reveal that the propagation speed of detonation waves increases with the rise of mass flow rates and is greater than the Chapman–Jouguet detonation speed (VC−J). Furthermore, numerical simulations of rotating detonation in a non-premixed three-dimensional cylindrical combustor have been conducted based on a multispecies reacting code. The influence of two mixing schemes—that is, slit-orifice and coaxial injector—on detonation waves are studied to determine whether the characteristics of detonation waves tend toward high-frequency combustion instability due to changes in the mixing scheme. It is found that the slit-orifice scheme’s detonation speed, pressure, and temperature are significantly higher than those of the coaxial injector scheme. In particular, the detonation speed of the former reaches 124% of the VC−J, while that of the latter is only 80.5% of the theoretical value. The numerical results reveal that the low-speed detonation is caused by the deterioration of the hydrogen (H2)/air mixing conditions. Moreover, the flow-field structures of two mixing schemes were comparable, both containing transverse detonation waves, oblique shocks, contact surfaces, and wedge-shaped reactant regions. Furthermore, the Rayleigh index analysis showed that the unsteady heat release was in phase with the pressure fluctuations, amplifying the pressure. Therefore, it is suggested that high-frequency combustion instability may be a manifestation of rotating detonation waves under poor mixing conditions.

Development of high-voltage negative ion based neutral beam injector for fusion devices

A prototype of a powerful high-voltage neutral beam injector, based on acceleration of negative hydrogen ions and their neutralization, is under development at Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP). The design of the BINP high-voltage injector includes several innovative components, important for injector operation stability and overall efficiency. It includes a multi-aperture long-pulse surface-plasma negative ion source with thermostabilized grid, ithe magnetic system with concaved field lines in the ion-optic system (IOS) and the distributed cesium deposition system. The injector scheme incorporates a wide-aperture low-energy beam transport (LEBT) section, plasma target for negative ionneutralization, and recuperators of non-neutralized ions. Several test stands were constructed at BINP for injector component studies. This paper describes the results of experiments on negative ion beam production, transport through LEBT, ion acceleration to energy up to 240 keV and transport through the high voltage beam transport (HEBT) section to the distance ∼10 m from the source. The parameters of the transported beam, which were measured at several points along the beam line and at the beam dump calorimeter, are presented. The beam transport efficiency as a function of various ion source, LEBT and HEBT parameters is measured and compared with the calculated values. The results dof plasma neutralization target study are presented as well.

Mixing and transient combustion processes of scramjet combustor with transverse injector and hypermixer

The supersonic mixing between the reactive injection with an airstream is an essential issue that determines the scramjet engine performance. The mixing and transient combustion processes under different equivalence ratios for both the transverse injector and hypermixer in a benchmarked Hyshot combustor are numerically investigated with a Mach 2.49 inlet flow. The improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) coupled with the Thickened Flame Model and seven species and seven reactions for the H2/air reaction mechanism was used to investigate differences in the mixing, shock structure, combustion mode, and combustion efficiency between the transverse injector and hypermixer. The results show that interactions between the streamwise vortex and hypermixer significantly impact the mixing and combustion enhancements. The combustors with the hypermixer and transverse injector are both in the scramjet mode at the equivalence ratio of 0.295. As the equivalence ratio increases to 0.593, the combustor with the hypermixer is still in the scramjet mode, but the combustor with transverse injector is already in the ramjet mode. The numerical results show that compared with the general transverse injector scheme, the scramjet combustor with the hypermixer has higher mixing and combustion efficiencies.

Bias-controlled spin memory and spin injector scheme in the tunneling junction with a single-molecule magnet* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11404322), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant No. 18KJD140005), and Zhengzhong Zhang is supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2013M541635) and the Postdoctoral

A bias-controlled spin-filter and spin memory is theoretically proposed, which consists of the junction with a single-molecule magnet sandwiched between the nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic (FM) leads. By applying different voltage pulses V write across the junction, the spin direction of the single-molecule magnet can be controlled to be parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetization of the FM lead, and the spin direction of SMM can be “read out” either by the magneto-resistance or by the spin current with another series of small voltage pulses V probe. It is shown that the polarization of the spin current is extremely high (up to 100%) and can be manipulated by the full-electric manner. This device scheme can be compatible with current technologies and has potential applications in high-density memory devices.

Effect of different wall injection schemes on the flow-field of hydrogen fuelled strut-based scramjet combustor

The multi-strut injector is one of the most favourable perspectives for the mixing improvement in between the hydrogen and the high-speed air, and its parametric investigation has drawn an increasing attention among the researchers. Hence the flow-field aspects of a particular multi-strut based scramjet combustor have been investigated numerically with the addition of four wall injectors and at the same time, the influence of combination of different strut as well as wall injector scheme on the performance of multi-strut scramjet engine has also been explored. Moreover, the current computational approach has been validated against the experimental data present in the open literature in case of single strut scramjet engine. The attained results reveal that the collaboration of multi-strut along with 2 wall injectors' improves the efficiency of scramjet as compared to other multi-strut + wall injection scheme as this combination achieve higher penetration height which will boost to a wider temperature and robust combustion area adjacent to the wall. Again, the appearance of extra H2 in the separated flow region precisely ahead of the wall injection region is mainly reasonable for the abrupt decrease in the mixing as well combustion efficiency plot in all the multi-strut + wall injection strategy.

Beam commissioning for a superconducting proton linac

To develop the next generation of safe and cleaner nuclear energy, the accelerator-driven subcritical (ADS) system emerges as one of the most attractive technologies. It will be able to transmute the long-lived transuranic radionuclides produced in the reactors of today's nuclear power plants into shorter-lived ones, and also it will provide positive energy output at the same time. The prototype of the Chinese ADS (C-ADS) proton accelerator comprises two injectors and a 1.5 GeV, 10 mA continuous wave (CW) superconducting main linac. The injector scheme II at the C-ADS demo facility inside the Institute of Modern Physics is a 10 MeV CW superconducting linac with a designed beam current of 10 mA, which includes an ECR ion source, a low-energy beam transport line, a 162.5 MHz radio frequency quadrupole accelerator, a medium-energy beam transport line, and a superconducting half wave resonator accelerator section. This demo facility has been successfully operating with an 11 mA, 2.7 MeV CW beam and a 3.9 mA, 4.3 MeV CW beam at different times and conditions since June 2014. The beam power has reached 28 kW, which is the highest record for the same type of linear accelerators. In this paper, the parameters of the test injector II and the progress of the beam commissioning are reported.

Noninterceptive transverse emittance measurements using BPM for Chinese ADS R&D project

The noninterceptive four-dimensional transverse emittance measurements are essential for commissioning the high power continue-wave (CW) proton linacs as well as their operations. The conventional emittance measuring devices such as slits and wire scanners are not well suited under these conditions due to sure beam damages. Therefore, the method of using noninterceptive Beam Position Monitor (BPM) is developed and demonstrated on Injector Scheme II at the Chinese Accelerator Driven Sub-critical System (China-ADS) proofing facility inside Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) [1]. The results of measurements are in good agreements with wire scanners and slits at low duty-factor pulsed (LDFP) beam. In this paper, the detailed experiment designs, data analysis and result benchmarking are presented.

Slow positron beam at the JINR, Dubna

Abstract The Low Energy Positron Toroidal Accumulator (LEPTA) at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) proposed for generation of positronium in flight has been adopted for positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). The positron injector generates continuous slow positron beam with positron energy range between 50 eV and 35 keV. The radioactive 22Na isotope is used. In distinction to popular tungsten foil, here the solid neon is used as moderator. It allows to obtain the beam intensity of about 105 e+/s width energy spectrum characterized by full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 3.4 eV and a tail to lower energies of about 30 eV. The paper covers the characteristic of variable energy positron beam at the LEPTA facility: parameters, the rule of moderation, scheme of injector, and transportation of positrons into the sample chamber. Recent status of the project and its development in the field of PAS is discussed. As an example, the measurement of the positron diffusion length in pure iron is demonstrated.

Design and construction of the MEBT1 for CADS injector scheme II**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11079001)

A Medium Energy Beam Transport line 1 (MEBT1) has been designed for Injector Scheme II of the China ADS project. To match the beam from RFQ to Superconducting (SC) Half Wave Resonator (HWR) sections with emittance preservation, the MEBT1 has been designed to be mechanically compact. Working at 162.5 MHz, the MEBT1 transports a 10 mA, 2.1 MeV proton beam using seven quadrupoles and two bunching cavities within 2.7 meters. Three collimators are placed between every two adjacent quadrupoles to collimate the beam halo. Design and construction of the MEBT1 are presented in this paper.

New spin injection scheme based on spin gapless semiconductors: A first-principles study

Spin injection efficiency based on a conventional and/or half-metallic ferromagnet/semiconductor is greatly limited by the Schmidt obstacle due to conductivity mismatch; here we proposed that by replacing the metallic injectors with spin gapless semiconductors can significantly reduce the conductive mismatch to enhance spin injection efficiency. By performing first-principles calculations based on superlattice structure, we have studied a representative system of Mn2CoAl/semiconductor spin injector scheme. The results showed that a high spin polarization was maintained at the interface in systems of Mn2CoAl/Fe2VAl constructed with (100) interface and Mn2CoAl/GaAs with (110) interface, and the latter is expected to possess long spin diffusion length. Inherited from the spin gapless feature of Mn2CoAl, a pronounced dip was observed around the Fermi level in the majority spin density of states in both systems, suggesting fast transport of the low-density carriers.

Transverse profile expansion and homogenization at target for the injector Scheme- I test stand of China-ADS**Supported by CAS Strategic Priority Research Program- China-ADS and National Natural Science Foundation of China (11235012, 10975150)

For the injector Scheme- I test stand of the China-ADS (Accelerator Driven subcritical System), a beam with the maximum power of 100 kW will be produced and transported to the beam dump. To solve the very high thermal load problem at the dump, two measures are taken to deal with the huge power density at the target. One is to enlarge the contact area between the beam and the target, and this is to be accomplished by expanding the beam profile at the target and using slanted target plates. The other is to produce a more homogenous beam profile at the target to minimize the maximum power density. Here the beam dump line is designed to meet the requirement of beam expansion and homogenization at 3 different energies (3.2 MeV, 5 MeV and 10 MeV), and the step-like field magnets are employed for the beam spot homogenization. Taking into account the fact that the space charge effects are very strong at such low beam energies, the simulations have included space charge effects and errors which show that the beam line can meet the requirements very well. In the meantime, the alternative beam design using standard multipole magnets is also presented.

Multi-physics analysis of the RFQ for Injector Scheme II of C-ADS driver linac

A 162.5 MHz, 2.1 MeV radio frequency quadruples (RFQ) structure is being designed for the Injector Scheme II of the China Accelerator Driven Sub-critical System (C-ADS) linac. The RFQ will operate in continuous wave (CW) mode as required. For the CW normal conducting machine, the heat management will be one of the most important issues, since the temperature fluctuation may cause cavity deformation and lead to the resonant frequency shift. Therefore a detailed multi-physics analysis is necessary to ensure that the cavity can stably work at the required power level. The multi-physics analysis process includes RF electromagnetic analysis, thermal analysis, mechanical analysis, and this process will be iterated for several cycles until a satisfactory solution can be found. As one of the widely accepted measures, the cooling water system is used for frequency fine tunning, so the tunning capability of the cooling water system is also studied under different conditions. The results indicate that with the cooling water system, both the temperature rise and the frequency shift can be controlled at an acceptable level.

Error analysis and lattice improvement for the C-ADS Injector- I

The injector Scheme- I (or Injector- I) of the C-ADS linac is a 10 mA 10 MeV proton linac working in CW mode. It is mainly comprised of a 3.2 MeV room-temperature 4-vane RFQ and twelve superconducting single-spoke cavities housed in a long cryostat. Error analysis including alignment and field errors, and static and dynamic ones for the injector are presented. Based on detailed numerical simulations, an orbit correction scheme has been designed, which shows that with correction the rms residual orbit errors can be controlled within 0.3 mm and a beam loss rate of 1.7×10−6 is obtained. To reduce the beam loss rate further, an improved lattice design for the superconducting spoke cavity section has been studied.

Physics design for the C-ADS main linac based on two different injector design schemes

The China ADS (C-ADS) project proposes to build a 1000 MW Accelerator Driven sub-critical System around 2032. The accelerator will work in CW mode with 10 mA in beam current and 1.5 GeV in final beam energy. The linac is composed of two major sections: the injector section and the main linac section. There are two different schemes for the injector section. The Injector- I scheme is based on a 325 MHz RFQ and superconducting spoke cavities of the same RF frequency and the Injector- II scheme is based on a 162.5 MHz RFQ and superconducting HWR cavities of the same frequency. The main linac design will be different for different injector choices. The two different designs for the main linac have been studied according to the beam characteristics from the different injector schemes.

Physical design of FEL injector based on the performance-enhanced EC-ITC RF gun

To meet the requirements of high performance THz-FEL (Free Electron Laser), a compact scheme of FEL injector was proposed. A thermionic cathode was chosen to emit electrons instead of a photo-cathode with its complex structure and high cost. The effective bunch charge was improved to ∼200 pC by adopting an enhanced EC-ITC (External Cathode Independently Tunable Cells) RF gun to extract micro-bunches; back bombardment effects were almost eliminated as well. Constant gradient accelerator structures were designed to improve energy to ∼14 MeV, while the focusing system was applied for emittance suppressing and bunch state maintenance. The physical design and beam dynamics of the key components for the FEL injector were analyzed. Furthermore, start-to-end simulations with multi-pulses were performed using homemade MATLAB and Parmela. The results show that continual high brightness electron bunches with a low energy spread and emittance could be obtained stably.

High-brightness high-duty cycle electron injectors

High brightness electron sources have been one of the driving forces behind the spectacular results achieved in the last decade by accelerator-based applications. Indeed, X-Ray FELs, with their 10-fold orders of magnitude increase in peak brightness, probably represent the best example of it. New ambitious proposals for X-ray FELs and ERLs, as well as inverse Compton sources for X- or gamma-ray production, are now requiring operation at MHz-GHz repetition rates. In response to that, a number of groups around the world have been actively working in developing high-brightness high-duty cycle electron injectors capable of driving such machines. The high repetition rate requirement cannot be met by the existing low-repetition rate high-brightness injector schemes, and new technologies are under investigation. This paper includes a description of the requirements for such injectors, an overview of the pursued technologies and schemes, a description of the main beam dynamics issues associated with the different choices, and a number of examples of the results obtained so far by the groups active in the field.

Enhancement of Electron Energy to the Multi-GeV Regime by a Dual-Stage Laser-Wakefield Accelerator Pumped by Petawatt Laser Pulses

Laser-wakefield acceleration offers the promise of a compact electron accelerator for generating a multi-GeV electron beam using the huge field gradient induced by an intense laser pulse, compared to conventional rf accelerators. However, the energy and quality of the electron beam from the laser-wakefield accelerator have been limited by the power of the driving laser pulses and interaction properties in the target medium. Recent progress in laser technology has resulted in the realization of a petawatt (PW) femtosecond laser, which offers new capabilities for research on laser-wakefield acceleration. Here, we present a significant increase in laser-driven electron energy to the multi-GeV level by utilizing a 30-fs, 1-PW laser system. In particular, a dual-stage laser-wakefield acceleration scheme (injector and accelerator scheme) was applied to boost electron energies to over 3GeV with a single PW laser pulse. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations corroborate the multi-GeV electron generation from the dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator driven by PW laser pulses.

Advanced photoinjector experiment photogun commissioning results

The Advanced Photoinjector Experiment (APEX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is dedicated to the development of a high-brightness high-repetition rate (MHz-class) electron injector for x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) and other applications where high repetition rates and high brightness are simultaneously required. The injector is based on a new concept rf gun utilizing a normal-conducting (NC) cavity resonating in the VHF band at 186 MHz, and operating in continuous wave (cw) mode in conjunction with high quantum efficiency photocathodes capable of delivering the required charge at MHz repetition rates with available laser technology. The APEX activities are staged in three phases. In phase 0, the NC cw gun is built and tested to demonstrate the major milestones to validate the gun design and performance. Also, starting in phase 0 and continuing in phase I, different photocathodes are tested at the gun energy and at full repetition rate for validating candidate materials to operate in a high-repetition rate FEL. In phase II, a room-temperature pulsed linac is added for accelerating the beam at several tens of MeV to reduce space charge effects and allow the measurement of the brightness of the beam from the gun when integrated in an injector scheme. The installation of the phase 0 beam line and the commissioning of the VHF gun are completed, phase I components are under fabrication, and initial design and specification of components and layout for phase II are under way. This paper presents the phase 0 commissioning results with emphasis on the experimental milestones that have successfully demonstrated the APEX gun capability of operating at the required performance.

Schlieren and PLIF Measurements of Liquid Fuel Injection in Mach 2 Supersonic Crossflow

Structures of liquid-fuel injection in supersonic crossflow is studied experimentally. Schemes of flush-wall injector and aviation kerosene are selected. The conditions of the supersonic freestream are kept constant (total pressure is 0.5MPa, total temperature is 500K and Mach number is 2) and the diameter of the injector is fixed as 0.5mm, while seven scenarios of injection angle and three scenarios of injection driven pressure are discussed. Both methods of schlieren and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) techniques are implemented to obtain the visual images of the liquid-fuel injection. The penetration height of fuel is analyzed quantitatively with the aid of Photoshop and Origin. The results serve not only the future computational simulation but also combined scheme of flush-wall injector and other combustor configurations.