Steve Virostek

Measurements of bremsstrahlung production and x-ray cryostat heating in VENUS

The VENUS superconducting electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source is designed to operate at 28 GHz with up to 10 kW of rf power. Most of this power is absorbed by the plasma electrons and then dumped onto the plasma chamber wall. The distribution of heating and bremsstrahlung production is highly nonuniform and reflects the geometry of the magnetic confinement fields. The nonuniform distribution of electron losses to the wall results in localized heating on the aluminum chamber walls, which can lead to burnout. In addition, part of the bremsstrahlung produced by the collision of the hot-electrons with the walls is absorbed by the cold mass of the superconducting magnet leading to an additional heat load in the cryostat in the order of several watts. Therefore a new plasma chamber has been installed that incorporates a high-Z tantalum shield to reduce the cryostat heating and enhance water cooling to minimize the chance of burnout. In order to better understand the heat load, the spectrum of the brem...

The Design Parameters for the MICE Tracker Solenoid

The first superconducting magnets to be installed in the union ionization cooling experiment (MICE) will be the tracker solenoids. The tracker solenoid module is a five coil superconducting solenoid with a 400 mm diameter warm bore that is used to provide a 4 T magnetic field for the experiment tracker module. Three of the coils are used to produce a uniform field (up to 4 T with better than 1 percent uniformity) in a region that is 300 mm in diameter and 1000 mm long. The other two coils are used to match the muon beam into the MICE cooling channel. Two 2.94-meter long superconducting tracker solenoid modules have been ordered for MICE. The tracker solenoid will be cooled using two-coolers that produce 1.5 W each at 4.2 K. The magnet system is described. The decisions that drive the magnet design will be discussed in this report.

VHF-band Photoinjector

New generation accelerator-based x-ray light sources require high quality electron beams. Parameters such as transverse emittance (projected or “sliced”), energy spread and bunch length for beams in the nC charge range, need to be pushed beyond their present limits for the successful operation of light sources such as Energy Recovery Linacs (ERL) and Free Electron Lasers (FEL). At the same time, the demand for a high average brightness is also driving towards technologies capable of very high repetition rate operation. The overall performance is greatly determined at the accelerator injector and in particular, at the electron gun. In this note, we present a new concept for a high repetition-rate photoinjector, capable of providing pulses up to at least 1 MHz or more.

The Design and Construction of the MICE Spectrometer Solenoids

The purpose of the MICE spectrometer solenoid is to provide a uniform field for a scintillating fiber tracker. The uniform field is produced by a long center coil and two short end coils. Together, they produce 4T field with a uniformity of better than 1% over a detector region of 1000 mm long and 300 mm in diameter. Throughout most of the detector region, the field uniformity is better than 0.3%. In addition to the uniform field coils, we have two match coils. These two coils can be independently adjusted to match uniform field region to the focusing coil field. The coil package length is 2544 mm. We present the spectrometer solenoid cold mass design, the powering and quench protection circuits, and the cryogenic cooling system based on using three cryocoolers with re-condensers.

The Results of Tests of the MICE Spectrometer Solenoids

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) spectrometer solenoid magnets will be the first magnets to be installed within the MICE cooling channel. The spectrometer magnets are the largest magnets in both mass and surface area within the MICE cooling channel. Like all of the other magnets in MICE, the spectrometer solenoids are kept cold using 1.5 W (at 4.2 K) pulse tube coolers. The MICE spectrometer solenoid is quite possibly the largest magnet that has been cooled using small coolers. Two spectrometer magnets have been built and tested. This report discusses the results of current and cooler tests of both magnets.

Magnetic and Cryogenic Design of MICE Coupling Solenoid Magnet System

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will demonstrate ionization cooling in a short section of a realistic cooling channel using a muon beam at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. The coupling magnet is a superconducting solenoid mounted around four 201 MHz RF cavities, which produces magnetic field up to 2.6 T on the magnet centerline to keep muons within the iris of RF cavities windows. The coupling coil with inner radius of 750 mm, length of 285 mm and thickness of 102.5 mm will be cooled by a pair of 1.5 W at 4.2 K small coolers. This paper will introduce the updated engineering design of the coupling magnet made by ICST in China. The detailed analyses on magnetic fields, stresses induced during the processes of winding, cool down and charging, and cold mass support assembly are presented as well.

Progress on the RF Coupling Coil Module Design for the Mice Channel

We describe the progress on the design of the RF coupling coil (RFCC) module for the international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK. The MICE cooling channel design consists of one SFOFO cell that is similar to that of the US Study-II of a neutrino factory. The MICE RFCC module comprises a superconducting solenoid, mounted around four normal conducting 201.25-MHz RF cavities. Each cavity has a pair of thin curved beryllium windows to close the conventional open beam irises, which allows for independent control of the phase in each cavity and for the RF power to be fed separately. The coil package that surrounds the RF cavities is mounted on a vacuum vessel. The RF vacuum is shared between the cavities and the vacuum vessel around the cavities such that there is no differential pressure on the thin beryllium windows. This paper discusses the design progress of the RFCC module and the fabrication progress of a prototype 201.25-MHz cavity.

Progress on the Coupling Coil for the Mice Channel

This report describes the progress on the coupling magnet for the international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE). MICE consists of two cells of a SFOFO cooling channel that is similar to that studied in the level 2 study of a neutrino factory. The MICE RF coupling coil module (RFCC module) consists of a 1.56 m diameter superconducting solenoid, mounted around four cells of conventional 201.25 MHz closed RF cavities. This report discusses the progress that has been made on the superconducting coupling coil that is around the center of the RF coupling module. This report describes the process by which one would cool the coupling coil using a single small 4 K cooler. In addition, the coupling magnet power system and quench protection system are also described.

Assembly and Installation of the Daya Bay Antineutrino Detectors

The Daya Bay reactor antineutrino experiment is designed to make a precision measurement of the neutrino mixing angle θ_(13), and recently made the definitive discovery of its non-zero value. It utilizes a set of eight, functionally identical antineutrino detectors to measure the reactor flux and spectrum at baselines of ~ 300–2000 m from the Daya Bay and Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plants. The Daya Bay antineutrino detectors were built in an above-ground facility and deployed side-by-side at three underground experimental sites near and far from the nuclear reactors. This configuration allows the experiment to make a precision measurement of reactor antineutrino disappearance over km-long baselines and reduces relative systematic uncertainties between detectors and nuclear reactors. This paper describes the assembly and installation of the Daya Bay antineutrino detectors.

RF, Thermal and Structural Analysis of the 201.25 MHz Muon Ionization Cooling Cavity

A finite element analysis has been carried out to characterize the RF, thermal and structural behavior of the prototype 201.25 MHz cavity for a muon ionization cooling channel. A single ANSYS [1] model has been developed to perform all of the calculations in a multi-step process. The high-gradient closed-cell cavity is currently being fabricated [2] for the MICE (international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment) and MUCOOL experiments. The 1200 mm diameter cavity is constructed of 6 mm thick copper sheet and incorporates a rounded pillbox-like profile with an open beam iris terminated by 420 mm diameter, 0.38 mm thick curved beryllium foils. Tuning is accomplished through elastic deformation of the cavity, and cooling is provided by external water passages. Details of the analysis methodology will be presented including a description of the ANSYS macro that computes the heat loads from the RF solution and applies them directly to the thermal model. The process and results of a calculation to determine the resulting frequency shift due to thermal and structural distortion of the cavity will also be presented.