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Alesini, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Alesini, D..

High- Q Microwave Dielectric Resonator for Axion Dark-Matter Haloscopes

The frequency band 1–15 GHz provides exciting prospects for resonant axion haloscopes as indicated by cosmological and astrophysical arguments. Among the challenges currently addressed to reach the required sensitivity, the development of high-quality factor cavities that tolerate multitesla fields plays a central role. We report a three-dimensional resonator based on a right-circular copper cavity with hollow cylinders that confine higher-order modes around the cylinder axis. Its effective volume at 10.3 GHz is 3.4 × 10 − 2 l, and under an 8-T field we measure an internal quality factor of more than nine million. A fine-tuning system limited to approximately 1 -MHz range is tested, useful for understanding the conditions required to run a haloscope with a cavity exceeding the axion quality factor. The cavity parameters we report demonstrate the potential of this unique resonator to probe galactic dark-matter axion at scan rates exceeding 2 MHz/day when the cavity is readout by a quantum-limited receiver.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Nano-machining, surface analysis and emittance measurements of a copper photocathode at SPARC_LAB

R&D activity on Cu photocathodes is under development at the SPARC_LAB test facility to fully characterize each stage of the photocathode “life” and to have a complete overview of the photoemission properties in high brightness photo-injectors. The nano(n)-machining process presented here consists in diamond milling, and blowing with dry nitrogen. This procedure reduces the roughness of the cathode surface and prevents surface contamination introduced by other techniques, such as polishing with diamond paste or the machining with oil. Both high roughness and surface contamination cause an increase of intrinsic emittance and consequently a reduction of the overall electron beam brightness. To quantify these effects, we have characterized the photocathode surface in terms of roughness measurement, and morphology and chemical composition analysis by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) techniques. The effects of n-machining on the electron beam quality have been also investigated through emittance measurements before and after the surface processing technique. Finally, we present preliminary emittance studies of yttrium thin film on Cu photocathodes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Ultrafast gating of a mid-infrared laser pulse by a sub-pC relativistic electron beam

In this paper we discuss a relative time-of-arrival measurement scheme between an electron beam and a mid-infrared laser pulse based on the electron-beam controlled transmission in semiconductor materials. This technique can be used as a time-stamping diagnostic in ultrafast electron diffraction or microscopy. In particular, our characterization of Germanium demonstrates that sub-ps time-of-arrival sensitivity could be achieved in a single shot and with very low charge beams (<1 pC). Detailed measurements as a function of the beam charge and the laser wavelength offer insights on the free carrier dynamics in the semiconductor upon excitation by the electron beam.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Electron Linac design to drive bright Compton back-scattering gamma-ray sources

The technological development in the field of high brightness linear accelerators and high energy/high quality lasers enables today designing high brilliance Compton-X and Gamma-photon beams suitable for a wide range of applications in the innovative field of nuclear photonics. The challenging requirements of this kind of source comprise: tunable energy (1-20 MeV), very narrow bandwidth (0.3%), and high spectral density (10{sup 4} photons/s/eV). We present here a study focused on the design and the optimization of an electron Linac aimed to meet the source specifications of the European Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics project, currently funded and seeking for an innovative machine design in order to outperform state-of-the-art facilities. We show that the phase space density of the electron beam, at the collision point against the laser pulse, is the main quality factor characterizing the Linac.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗