J. D. Gilpatrick

LEDA and APT beam diagnostics instrumentation

A 20-MeV 100-mA-CW proton-accelerator, Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA), is presently being developed, fabricated, and tested at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The beam diagnostic instrumentation for LEDA and the final 1700-GeV Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) are classified into two categories: operation and characterization instrumentation. The operational instrumentation does not intercept or minimally-intercepts the beam and are sufficiently prompt and robust to provide accurate information to the operators and commissioners during full-current CW beam operation. The characterization instrumentation, primarily utilized during commissioning project-phases, operates under more traditional 100-mA-peak and approximately 0.1-mA-average beam-current conditions. This paper will review some of the LEDA and APT operational beam diagnostic instrumentation.

Experience with the low energy demonstration accelerator (LEDA) halo experiment beam instrumentation

A 52 quadrupole-magnet FODO lattice has been assembled and operated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The purpose of this lattice is to provide a platform to measure the resulting beam halo as the first four magnets of the lattice produce various mismatch conditions. These data are then compared with particle simulations so that halo formation mechanisms may be better understood. The lattice is appended to the LEDA 6.7-MeV radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) and is followed by a short high-energy beam transport (HEBT) that safely dumps the beam into a 670-kW beam stop. Beam diagnostic instruments are interspersed within the lattice and HEBT. The primary instruments for measuring the beam halo are nine interceptive devices that acquire the beams horizontal and vertical projected particle density distributions out to an approximate 10/sup 5/:1 dynamic range. These distributions are acquired using both traditional wire scanners and water-cooled graphite scraping devices. The lattice and HEBT instrumentation set also includes position, bunched-beam current, pulsed current, and beam loss measurements. This paper briefly describes and details the operation of each instrument compares measured data from the different types of instruments, and refers to other detailed papers.

Experience with the ground test accelerator beam‐measurement instrumentation

During the past two years, the Ground Test Accelerator (GTA) has used a variety of off‐ and on‐line beam diagnostic measurements to understand and verify the transverse and longitudinal phase space characteristics of a 35‐mA, low‐energy (2.5‐ to 3.2‐MeV) H−‐beam. For the transverse phase‐space characterization measurements, a slit and collector device samples of the x−x’ and y−y’ phase space, to determine the transverse emittance and Courant–Snyder parameters. The longitudinal phase‐space data are acquired by a laser neutralization technique developed at Los Alamos know as the laser induced neutralization diagnostics approach (LINDA). The transverse and longitudinal phase‐space centroids of the low‐energy, 425‐MHz‐bunched beam are directly measured using the microstrip probe systems. Beam current and transmission are measured by various toroid systems. Beam‐loss‐detection techniques have just been installed and a non‐interceptive beam‐profile measurement has been commissioned. All of these measurement sys...

LEDA beam diagnostics instrumentation: Measurement comparisons and operational experience

The Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) facility has been used to characterize the pulsed- and cw-beam performance of a 6.7 MeV, 100 mA radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ). Diagnostic instrumentation, primarily located in a short beam transport downstream of the RFQ, allow facility commissioners and operators to measure and monitor the RFQ’s accelerated and total beam transmission, beam loss, bunched beam current, beam energy and output phase, and beam position. Transverse beam profile measurements are acquired under both low and high duty-factor pulsed beam conditions using a slow wire scanner and a camera that images beam-induced fluorescence. The wire scanner is also used to acquire transverse beam emittance information using a technique known as a “quad scan”. This paper reviews the measurement performance and discusses the resulting data.The present configuration of the Low-Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) consists of a 75-keV proton injector, a 6.7-MeV 350-MHz cw radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) with associated high-power and lowlevel rf systems, a 52-magnet periodic lattice followed by a short high-energy beam transport (HEBT) and highpower (670-kW cw) beam stop. The rms beam emittance was measured prior to the installation of the 52-magnet lattice, based on wire-scanner measurements of the beam profile at a single location in the HEBT. New measurements with additional diagnostic hardware have been performed to determine the rms transverse beam properties of the beam at the output of the 6.7-MeV LEDA RFQ. The 52-magnet periodic lattice also includes ten beam position monitors (BPMs) evenly spaced in pairs of two. The BPMs provide a measure of the bunched beam current that exhibits nulls at different locations in the lattice. Model predictions of the locations of the nulls and the strength of the bunched beam current are made to determine what information this data can provide regarding the longitudinal beam emittance.

Beam-profile instrumentation for beam-halo measurement: overall description and operation

Within the halo experiment presently being conducted at the Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, specific beam instruments that acquire horizontally and vertically projected particle-density distributions out to approximately 10/sup 5/:1 dynamic range are located throughout the 52-magnet halo lattice. We measure the core of the distributions using traditional wire scanners, and the tails of the distribution using water-cooled graphite scraping devices. The wire scanner and halo scrapers are mounted on the same moving frame whose location is controlled with stepper motors. A sequence within the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software communicates with a National Instruments LabVIEW virtual instrument to control the motion and location of the scanner/scraper assembly. Secondary electrons from the wire scanner 0.033-mm carbon wire and protons impinging on the scraper are both detected with a lossy-integrator electronic circuit. Algorithms implemented within EPICS and in Research Systems Interactive Data Language subroutines analyze and plot the acquired distributions. This paper describes this beam profile instrument, describes our experience with its operation, compares acquired profile data with simulation, and refers to other detailed papers.

Comparison of beam-position-transfer functions using circular beam-position monitors

A cylindrical beam-position monitor (BPM) used in many accelerator facilities has four electrodes on which beam-image currents induce bunched-beam signals. These probe-electrode signals are geometrically configured to provide beam-position information about two orthogonal axes. An electronic processor performs a mathematical transfer function (TF) on these BPM-electrode signals to produce output signals whose time-varying amplitude is proportional to the beams vertical and horizontal position. This paper compares various beam-position TFs using both pencil beams and further discuss how diffuse beams interact with some of these TFs.

Analysis of data from the LEDA wire scanner/halo scraper

A new diagnostic has been designed and commissioned that measures the profile of the beam in the halo channel of the Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This paper describes the algorithms written to analyze the data from that diagnostic, a combined wire scanner and halo scraper. These algorithms determine the safe insertions limit of the scrapers, spatially differentiate the scraper signal, amalgamate the wire scanner data with the differentiated scraper data, determine when both the core and combined distributions rise above the noise floor, and compute the moments of the combined distribution. Results of applying the algorithms to data acquired during experiments matching the beam into the halo channel are presented.

BPM ANALOG FRONT-END ELECTRONICS BASED ON THE AD8307 LOG AMPLIFIER

Beam position monitor (BPM) signal-processing electronics utilizing the Analog Devices AD8307 logarithmic amplifier has been developed for the Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA), part of the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) project at Los Alamos. The low-pass filtered 350 MHz fundamental signal from each of the four microstrip electrodes in a BPM is “detected” by an AD8307 log amp, amplified and scaled to accommodate the 0 to +5 V input of an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. The resultant four digitized signals represent a linear power relationship to the electrode signals, which are in turn related to beam current and position. As the AD8307 has a potential dynamic range of approximately 92 dB, much attention must be given to noise reduction, sources of which can be digital signals on the same board, power supplies, inter-channel coupling, stray RF and others. This paper will describe the operational experience of this particular analog front-end electronic circuit design.

Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) beam instrumentation: RFQ-accelerated beam results

Beam diagnostic instrumentation is being developed for the LEDA, a 6.7-MeV, 100-mA-cw proton accelerator, presently being commissioned at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This instrumentation will be the basis for much of the Accelerator Production of Tritium and the Spallation Neutron Source linac. Located in the LEDA injector and the high energy beam transport (HEBT) this initial instrumentation suites purpose is to verify the RFQ pulsed and cw operation. The instrumentation include a series of DC, pulsed- and bunched-beam current measurements from which RFQ beam-transmission efficiency will be determined. Ionization-chamber beam loss measurements are mounted above the HEBT and provide input signals to a fast equipment protection system. Central beam phase and energy measurements provide RFQ longitudinal performance information. Beam position measurements provide information to properly center the beam within the HEBT beam pipe. Finally, two types of transverse profile measurements including a slow wire scanner and a video fluorescence monitor provide beam width and projection information in the LEDA HEBT. This paper will discuss these measurements developed for LEDA and summarize how they performed during RFQ verification experiments.

The LEDA beam-position measurement system

This paper describes the beam-position measurement system being developed for the Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) and the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The system consists of a beam-position monitor (BPM) probe, cabling, down-converter module, position/intensity module, on-line error-correction system, and the necessary control system interfaces. The modules are built on the VXI-interface standard and are capable of duplex data transfer with the control system. Some of the key, system parameters are: position-measurement bandwidth of at least 180 kHz, the ability to measure beam intensity, a beam-position measurement accuracy of less than 1.25 percent of the bore radius, a beam-current dynamic range of 46 dB, a total system dynamic range in excess of 75 dB, and built-in on-line digital-system-error correction.