Featured Researches

Accelerator Physics

*The Mathieu unit cell as a template for low emittance lattices

The multi-bend achromat (MBA), which often serves as a building block for modern low-emittance storage rings, is composed of a repetition of unit cells with optimized optical functions for low emittance in the achromat center, as well as end cells for dispersion and optics matching to insertion devices. In this work, we describe the simplest stable class of unit cells that are based on a longitudinal Fourier expansion, transforming Hill equations to Mathieu equations. The resulting cell class exhibits continuously changing dipolar and quadrupolar moments along the beam path. Although this elementary model is defined by only three parameters, it captures a significant amount of notions that are applied in the design of MBAs. This is especially interesting as Mathieu cells can be viewed as an elementary extension of Christofilos' original model of alternating-gradient focusing, while their sinusoidal bending and focusing functions lend themselves to future applications in undulator-like structures. Mathieu cells can be used to estimate the range of reasonable cell tunes and put an emphasis on the combination of longitudinal gradient bending and reverse bending, as well as on strong horizontal focusing to reach emittances lower than the classic theoretical minimum emittance cell. Furthermore, the lowest emittances in this model are accompanied by small absolute momentum compaction factors.

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Accelerator Physics

35 megawatt multicycle THz pulses from a homemade periodically poled macrocrystal

High-power multicycle THz radiation is highly sought after with applications in medicine, imaging, spectroscopy, characterization and manipulation of condensed matter, and could support the development of next-generation compact laser-based accelerators with applications in electron microscopy, ultrafast X-ray sources and sub-femtosecond longitudinal diagnostics. Multicycle THz-radiation can be generated by shooting an appropriate laser through a periodically poled nonlinear crystal, e.g. lithium niobate (PPLN). Unfortunately, the manufacturing processes of PPLNs require substantially strong electric fields O(10 kV/mm) across the crystal width to locally reverse the polarization domains; this limits the crystal apertures to below 1 cm. Damage threshold limitations of lithium niobate thereby limits the laser power which can be shone onto the crystal, which inherently limits the production of high-power THz pulses. Here we show that in the THz regime, a PPLN crystal can be mechanically constructed in-air by stacking lithium niobate wafers together with 180 ∘ rotations to each other. The relatively long (mm) wavelengths of the generated THz radiation compared to the small gaps ( ∼ 10 μ m) between wafers supports a near-ideal THz transmission between wafers. We demonstrate the concept using a Joule-class laser system with ∼ 50 mm diameter wafers and measure up to 1.3 mJ of THz radiation corresponding to a peak power of ∼ 35 MW, a 50 times increase in THz power compared to previous demonstrations. Our results indicate that high-power THz radiation can be produced with existing and future high-power lasers in a scalable way, setting a course toward multi-gigawatt THz pulses. Moreover the simplicity of the scheme provides a simple way to synthesize waveforms for a variety of applications.

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Accelerator Physics

750 MHz radio frequency quadrupole with trapezoidal vanes for carbon ion therapy

High-frequency linear accelerators are very suitable for carbon ion therapy, thanks to the reduced operational costs and the high beam quality with respect to synchrotrons, which are presently the only available technology for this application. In the framework of the development of a new linac for carbon ion therapy, this article describes the design of a compact 750 MHz Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) with trapezoidal vanes. A new semi-analytic approach to design the trapezoidal-vane RFQ is introduced together with the relevant beam dynamics properties. The RFQ is split into two decoupled rf cavities, both of which make use of a novel dipole detuning technique by means of length adjustment. The splitting is described both from the rf and the beam dynamics point of view. The paper concludes with the rf design of the full structure, including maximum surface field and thermal studies.

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Accelerator Physics

A Brief Review of Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

Plasma Wakefield Accelerators promise huge acceleration gradients that are three orders of magnitude greater than today's conventional radio frequency (RF) accelerators. These novel accelerators show also the potential of diminishing the size of the future accelerators nearly by the same factor. This review gives brief explanations and the working principles of the Plasma Wakefield Accelerators and shows the recent developments of the field. The current challenges are given and the potential future use of the Plasma Wakefield Accelerators are discussed.

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Accelerator Physics

A Coupled A-H Formulation for Magneto-Thermal Transients in High-Temperature Superconducting Magnets

The application of high-temperature superconductors to accelerator magnets for future particle colliders is under study. Numerical methods are crucial for an accurate evaluation of the complex dynamical behavior of the magnets, especially concerning the magnetic field quality and thermal behavior. We present a coupled A - H field formulation for the analysis of magneto-thermal transients in accelerator magnets. The magnetic field strength H accounts for the eddy current problem in the source regions containing the superconducting domains, while the magnetic vector potential A represents the magnetoquasistatic problem in the normal and non-conducting domains. Furthermore, we include a slab approximation for the source regions, making the formulation suitable for large scale models composed of thousands of tapes. In this work, the relevant equations are derived and discussed, with emphasis on the coupling conditions. The weak formulation is derived, and numerical results are provided in order to both, verify the formulation and scale it to the size of an accelerator magnet.

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Accelerator Physics

A Field-Enhanced Conduction-Cooled Superconducting Cavity for High-Repetition-Rate Ultrafast Electron Bunch Generation

High-repetition-rate sources of bright electron bunches have a wide range of applications. They can directly be employed as probes in electron-scattering setups, or serve as a backbone for the generation of radiation over a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper describes the development of a compact sub-Mega-electronvolt (sub-MeV) electron-source setup capable of operating at MHz repetition rates and forming sub-picosecond electron bunches with transverse emittance below 20~nm. The setup relies on a conduction-cooled superconducting single-cell resonator with its geometry altered to enhance the field at the surface of the emitter. The system is designed to accommodate cooling using a model a 2 ~W at 4.2 K pulse tube cryogen-free cryocooler. Although we focus on the case of a photoemitted electron bunch, the scheme could be adapted to other emission mechanisms.

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Accelerator Physics

A Novel Approach for Classification and Forecasting of Time Series in Particle Accelerators

The beam interruptions (interlocks) of particle accelerators, despite being necessary safety measures, lead to abrupt operational changes and a substantial loss of beam time. A novel time series classification approach is applied to decrease beam time loss in the High Intensity Proton Accelerator complex by forecasting interlock events. The forecasting is performed through binary classification of windows of multivariate time series. The time series are transformed into Recurrence Plots which are then classified by a Convolutional Neural Network, which not only captures the inner structure of the time series but also utilizes the advances of image classification techniques. Our best performing interlock-to-stable classifier reaches an Area under the ROC Curve value of 0.71±0.01 compared to 0.65±0.01 of a Random Forest model, and it can potentially reduce the beam time loss by 0.5±0.2 seconds per interlock.

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Accelerator Physics

A Novel Exact Analytical Expression for the Magnetic Field of a Solenoid

In this paper we present the analytical calculations to derive the magnetic field of a solenoid by solving exactly a fractional integral with the use of a novel method. Starting from the Biot-Savart law, we consider a coil of negligible thickness with a stationary electric current. We derive the expressions of the on and off-axes magnetic field components. The results have been compared to some simplified and known analytical formulae as well as to a commercial numerical code showing a good agreement.

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Accelerator Physics

A Numerical Approach to Designing a Versatile Pepper-pot Mask for Emittance Measurement

The pepper-pot method is a popular emittance measurement technique for high intensity beams at low energy such as those generated by photo-injectors. In this paper, the beam dynamics in the space charge dominated regime and analytical design criteria for a mask-based emittance measurement (pepper-pot method) are revisited. A tracking code developed to test the performance of a pepper-pot setup is introduced. Examples of such testing are presented with particle distributions that were generated using PARMELA under different focusing conditions. These distributions were numerically tested against a series of mask geometries suggested by analytical criteria. The resulting fine-tuned geometries and beam dynamics features observed are presented.

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Accelerator Physics

A SW Ka-Band Linearizer Structure with Minimum Surface Electric Field for the Compact Light XLS Project

There is a strong demand for accelerating structures able to achieve higher gradients and more compact dimensions for the next generation of linear accelerators for research, industrial and medical applications. In the framework of the Compact Light XLS project, an ultra high gradient higher harmonic RF accelerating structure is needed for the linearization of the longitudinal space phase. In order to determine the maximum sustainable gradients in normal conducting RF powered particle beam accelerators with extremely low probability of RF breakdown, investigations are in progress for using shorts accelerating structures in the Ka-band regime. We here report an electromagnetic design of a compact linearizer standing wave (SW) accelerating structure 8 cm long operating on π mode, third harmonic with respect to the Linac frequency (11.994 GHz) with a 100 MV/m accelerating gradient and minimum surface electric field. Numerical electromagnetic studies have been performed by using the well known SuperFish, HFSS and CST computing software.

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