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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Enhanced proton acceleration in an applied longitudinal magnetic field

Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we examine how an externally applied strong magnetic field impacts proton acceleration in laser-irradiated solid-density targets. We find that a kT-level external magnetic field can sufficiently inhibit transverse transport of hot electrons in a flat laser-irradiated target. While the electron heating by the laser remains mostly unaffected, the reduced electron transport during proton acceleration leads to an enhancement of maximum proton energies and the overall number of energetic protons. The resulting proton beam is much better collimated compared to a beam generated without applying a kT-level magnetic field. A factor of three enhancement of the laser energy conversion efficiency into multi-MeV protons is another effect of the magnetic field. The required kT-level magnetic fields are becoming feasible due to a significant progress that has been made in generating magnetic fields with laser-driven coils using ns-long laser pulses. The possibility of improving characteristics of laser-driven proton beams using such fields is a strong motivation for further development of laser-driven magnetic field capabilities.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Optimal Spatial Separation of High-Order Harmonics from Infrared Driving Lasers with an Annular Beam in the Overdriven Regime

We study high-order harmonic generation (HHG) with an annularly shaped high-power, high-repetition-rate laser. In this work we investigate how the spatial separation (or divergence) of the incident laser and the generated high-order harmonics depends on the gas pressure when the laser intensity is in the overdriven regime. It is shown that, when the cone size of the incident annular beam is relatively large, the resulting harmonics are highly collimated along the propagation axis and are spatially separated from the incident beam. Under the overdriven condition, dynamic phase matching favors HHG emissions from short-trajectory electrons that are efficiently built up in the second half of the gas medium. We verify that using an annular beam is a simple and effective method for separating the intense incident infrared laser from the generated high harmonics. Such high-flux and low-divergence light pulses are expected to be powerful sources in the laboratory for ultrafast probing of electron dynamics.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2012

Measurements of transverse beam halo diffusion rates in the LHC with collimator scans

Measurements of beam halo dynamics were conducted in the LHC on 22 June 2012 at 4 TeV using collimator scans. Four scans were performed: on proton beam 1 with a vertical collimator and on beam 2 with a horizontal collimator, first with squeezed separated beams and subsequently in collision. The time evolution of losses following collimator steps provides experimental estimates of halo diffusion, halo population, impact parameter distributions, and beam jitter. Besides its general interest for beam dynamics and machine performance characterization, this information forms an essential input for the general design of collimation systems, including new methods such as crystal collimators and hollow electron lenses. In this note, the results of an analysis of the data is presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Radiological Consequences of Beam Loss on Beamline Front End Collimator during Top-off Injection into the Storage Ring

The primary radiological safety concern for the top-off injection, with the beam line front end safety shutters open, is the scenario where electrons could be conveyed down to the beam line through the front end due to the erroneous combination of lattice magnetic field settings and beam energy. It is of paramount importance to ensure that such events are of remote possibility. Particle tracking simulations by the NSLS-II Accelerator Physicists have shown that by a set of interlocking requirements of the lattice magnetic fields and by the implementation of physical apertures, the errant electron beam can be confined to the front end components within the storage ring.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Summary of the 2014 Beam-Halo Monitoring Workshop

Understanding and controlling beam halo is important for high-intensity hadron accelerators, for high-brightness electron linacs, and for low-emittance light sources. This can only be achieved by developing suitable diagnostics. The main challenge faced by such instrumentation is the high dynamic range needed to observe the halo in the presence of an intense core. In addition, measurements must often be made non-invasively. This talk summarizes the one-day workshop on Beam-Halo Monitoring that was held at SLAC on September 19 last year, immediately following IBIC 2014 in Monterey. Workshop presentations described invasive techniques using wires, screens, or crystal collimators, and non-invasive measurements with gas or scattered electrons. Talks on optical methods showed the close links between observing halo and astronomical problems like observing the solar corona or directly observing a planet orbiting another star.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nano-fabricated pixelated micropolarizer array for visible imaging polarimetry

Pixelated micropolarizer array (PMA) is a novel concept for real-time visible imaging polarimetry. A 320 × 240 aluminum PMA fabricated by electron beam lithography is described in this paper. The period, duty ratio, and depth of the grating are 140 nm, 0.5, and 100 nm, respectively. The units are standard square structures and the metal nanowires of the grating are collimating and uniformly thick. The extinction ratio of 75 and the maximum polarization transmittance of 78.8% demonstrate that the PMA is suitable for polarization imaging. When the PMA is applied to real-time polarization imaging, the degree of linear polarization image and the angle of linear polarization image are calculated from a single frame image. The polarized target object is highlighted from the unpolarized background, and the surface contour of the target object can be reflected by the polarization angle.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Generation of valley-polarized electron beam in bilayer graphene

We propose a method to produce valley-polarized electron beams using a bilayer graphene npn junction. By analyzing the transmission properties of electrons through the junction with zigzag interface in the presence of trigonal warping, we observe that there exist a range of incident energies and barrier heights in which transmitted electrons are well polarized and collimated. From this observation and by performing numerical simulations, it is demonstrated that valley-dependent electronic currents with nearly perfect polarization can be generated. We also show that the peak-to-peak separation angle between the polarized currents is tunable either by incident energy or by barrier height each of which is controlled by using top and back gate voltages. The results can be used for constructing an electron beam splitter to produce valley-polarized currents.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2012

Development of a one-stop beam verification system using electronic portal imaging devices for routine quality assurance

In this study, a computer-based system for routine quality assurance (QA) of a linear accelerator (linac) was developed by using the dosimetric properties of an amorphous silicon electronic portal imaging device (EPID). An acrylic template phantom was designed such that it could be placed on the EPID and be aligned with the light field of the collimator. After irradiation, portal images obtained from the EPID were transferred in DICOM format to a computer and analyzed using a program we developed. The symmetry, flatness, field size, and congruence of the light and radiation fields of the photon beams from the linac were verified simultaneously. To validate the QA system, the ion chamber and film (X-Omat V2; Kodak, New York, NY) measurements were compared with the EPID measurements obtained in this study. The EPID measurements agreed with the film measurements. Parameters for beams with energies of 6 MV and 15 MV were obtained daily for 1 month using this system. It was found that our QA tool using EPID could substitute for the film test, which is a time-consuming method for routine QA assessment.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Comment on "Table-Top Laser-Based Source of Femtosecond, Collimated, Ultrarelativistic Positron Beams"

Sarri et al. have reported the generation of low divergence (~3 mrad), high-density (10 14 cm –3 ) positron beams using millimeter-scale converter targets and a 50 pC, 200 MeV laser-wakefield accelerated (LWFA) electron source. It was argued that the positron divergence was dominated by the pair-production birth cone angle $θ_{e+} ≈ 1/γ_{e–}$. The small, energy-independent divergence value was used to infer a positron beam density of 2 × 10 14 cm –3 from a 4.2 mm Ta converter target where the divergence and yield measurements agreed with their Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We have repeated these simulations using experimental conditions and disagree with the reported density, divergence, and yield values by up to factors > 50. In our work, we find that a divergence on the order of milliradian is not physical and can only be achieved if inelastic particle scattering is omitted in the calculations.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-energy X-ray radiography with apodized petawatt laser beams

We have produced laser wakefield-accelerated electron beams with energies of 2 GeV in Target Area 1 of the ZEUS facility. These electron beams oscillate in the accelerating structure that is produced in the wake of an ultrashort laser pulse (25 fs). These ’betatron’ oscillations result in the emission of a collimated (4 mrad divergence) beam of high-energy X-ray/gamma photons (on the order of several hundred keV). In this work, we demonstrate the capabilities of the ZEUS laser system by showing that apodizing the laser beam in the near field allows for the production of high-quality betatron X-rays for radiography purposes. This demonstrates that a high-power, large-aperture laser beam could be split into multiple parts to drive betatron X-ray sources from multiple angles or temporal delays into a High Energy Density (HED) target to be probed, enabling pump-probe measurements at multiple temporal delays or tomography on a single shot.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Design and Testing of Subsystems for Mo-99 Production

Argonne National Laboratory, in cooperation with Los Alamos National Laboratory, is developing technology with NorthStar Medical Technologies to produce 99 Mo from the γ,n reaction on a 100 Mo target in an electron accelerator. During production runs and thermal testing of the helium-cooled target, it became obvious that a production-scale beam-line configuration would need a collimator to protect the target from accidental beam misplacement or a beam-profile change. A prototype high-power collimator and beam stop were designed and fabricated. Testing indicated that they will be able to operate at full power in the production-scale accelerator.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Laser-produced aluminum plasma expansion inside a plastic plasma envelope

Previous experimental results demonstrated that the plasma pressure decreases with the growing atomic number of the target material. In this context, a question arose if the Al plasma outflow could be collimated using the plastic plasma as a compressor. To solve this problem, an experiment using a plastic target with an Al cylindrical insert was performed. The focal spot diameter substantially larger than that of the insert ensured simultaneous heating both target materials. This experiment proved that a production of Al plasma jets collimated by an action of outer plastic plasma is feasible [Kasperczuk et al., Laser Part. Beams 30, 1 (2012)]. The results of investigations presented here provide additional information on distributions of electron temperature in the outflowing plasma and time and space characteristics of ion emission, both registered at bare and constrained-flow Al targets. The experiment was carried out at the Prague asterix laser system iodine laser facility. The laser provided a 250 ps (full width at half maximum) pulse with the energy of 130 J at the third harmonic frequency ({lambda}{sub 3} = 0.438 {mu}m). A plastic target with an Al cylindrical insert of 400 {mu}m in diameter as well as a bare Al target (for comparison) was used. The focal spot diameter ({Phi}{sub L}) 1200 {mu}m ensured the lateral pressure effect of the plastic plasma strong enough to guarantee the effective Al plasma compression. The electron temperature measurements have shown that such Al plasma compression is accompanied by the increase of its temperature, dominance of which starts at distance of 0.5 mm from the target surface. Measurements of ion emission characteristics confirm the earlier numerical simulation prediction that in these conditions the plasma expansion geometry is closer to planar. The constrained Al plasma jet is very narrow and its axial velocity is considerably larger than the velocity of freely expanding Al plasma stream. It means that the plastic plasma envelope, besides the Al plasma compression, also strongly accelerates the Al plasma in its axial motion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

X-ray spectroscopy of warm and hot electron components in the CAPRICE source plasma at EIS testbench at GSI

An experimental campaign aiming to detect X radiation emitted by the plasma of the CAPRICE source – operating at GSI, Darmstadt – has been carried out. Two different detectors (a SDD – Silicon Drift Detector and a HpGe – hyper-pure Germanium detector) have been used to characterize the warm (2–30 keV) and hot (30–500 keV) electrons in the plasma, collecting the emission intensity and the energy spectra for different pumping wave frequencies and then correlating them with the CSD of the extracted beam measured by means of a bending magnet. A plasma emissivity model has been used to extract the plasma density along the cone of sight of the SDD and HpGe detectors, which have been placed beyond specific collimators developed on purpose. Results show that the tuning of the pumping frequency considerably modifies the plasma density especially in the warm electron population domain, which is the component responsible for ionization processes: a strong variation of the plasma density near axis region has been detected. Potential correlations with the charge state distribution in the plasma are explored.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1998

Advanced High Brilliance X-Ray Source

The possibility to dramatically increase the efficiency of laboratory based protein structure measurements through the use of polycapillary X-ray optics was investigated. This project initiated April 1, 1993 and concluded December 31, 1996 (including a no cost extension from June 31, 1996). This is a final report of the project. The basis for the project is the ability to collect X-rays from divergent electron bombardment laboratory X-ray sources and redirect them into quasiparallel or convergent (focused) beams. For example, a 0.1 radian (approx. 6 deg) portion of a divergent beam collected by a polycapillary collimator and transformed into a quasiparallel beam of 3 millradian (0.2 deg) could give a gain of 6(exp 2)/0.2(exp 2) x T for the intensity of a diffracted beam from a crystal with a 0.2 deg diffraction width. T is the transmission efficiency of the polycapillary diffraction optic, and for T=0.5, the gain would be 36/0.04 x O.5=45. In practice, the effective collection angle will depend on the source spot size, the input focal length of the optic (usually limited by the source spot-to-window distance on the x-ray tube) and the size of the crystal relative to the output diameter of the optic. The transmission efficiency, T, depends on the characteristics (fractional open area, surface roughness, shape and channel diameter) of the polycapillary optic and is typically in the range 0.2-0.4. These effects could substantially reduce the expected efficiency gain. During the course of this study, the possibility to use a weakly focused beam (0.5 deg convergence) was suggested which could give an additional 10-20 X efficiency gain for small samples . Weakly focused beams from double focusing mirrors are frequently used for macromolecular crystallography studies. Furthermore the crystals are typically oscillated by as much as 2 deg during each X-ray exposure in order to increase the reciprocal space (number of crystal planes) sampled and use of a slightly convergent beam could, in principle, provide a similar sampling benefit without oscillation. Although more problematic, because of complications in analyzing the diffraction patterns, it was also suggested that even more extreme beam convergence might be used to give another order of magnitude intensity gain and even smaller focused spot size which could make it possible to study smaller protein crystals than can be studied using standard laboratory based X-ray diffraction systems. This project represents the first systematic investigation of these possibilities. As initially proposed, the contract included requirements for design, purchase, evaluation and delivery of three polycapillary lenses to the Laboratory for Structural Biology at MSFC and demonstration of such optics at MSFC for selected protein crystal diffraction applications.

Gibson, Walter M.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Mu2e Calorimeter Clustering Studies [Slides]

aMu2e (muon-to-electron-conversion), an Intensity Frontier experiment at Fermilab set to begin data taking in 2022, will search for flavor violation in charged leptons with a muon decaying to only an electron without any neutrinos. Protons will be accelerated by the 8GeV proton beam before reaching Mu2e’s production target. From there, pions enter an S-shaped Transport Solenoid and travel through a series of absorbers and collimators to select low-energy negatively charged muons from pion decay that will hit the stopping target. Downstream from the stopping target are a curved straw tracker and two annular disk crystal calorimeters. The signal will be a mono-energetic e- with an energy close to the rest mass of a muon. The Mu2e expected single event sensitivity is 2.87e-17. The complimentary trigger strategy will take advantage of both online track searches from the tracker and calorimeter reconstruction. The trigger requires a rejection factor greater than 100 and m ust make its decision within a 3ms time budget. In order to provide high efficiency on signal events, our calorimeter clustering algorithms must be accurate and meet the timing performance. I will discuss the expected performance of two clustering algorithms: a fast algorithm to be used at the trigger level and a more accurate clustering algorithm to be used in the offline reconstruction. The fast algorithm defines clusters by only selecting crystals adjacent to a high energy crystal seed. The full-blown algorithm can find smaller clusters separated from the main cluster, within a distance and timing window, and combine them into one cluster. We have analyzed the topology of the reconstructed clusters by the two algorithms on events with only a conversion electron and combined signal and background events. The goal of these studies is to improve the performance of the fast algorithm to better reconstruct the cluster energy and work within the strict timing budget.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

FACET: SLAC___s New User Facility

FACET (Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests) is a new User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The first User Run started in spring 2012 with 20 GeV, 3 nC electron beams. The facility is designed to provide short (20 {micro}m) bunches and small (20 {micro}m wide) spot sizes, producing uniquely high power beams. FACET supports studies from many fields but in particular those of Plasma Wakefield Acceleration and Dielectric Wakefield Acceleration. The creation of drive and witness bunches and shaped bunch profiles is possible with 'Notch' Collimation. FACET is also a source of THz radiation for material studies. Positrons will be available at FACET in future user runs. We present the User Facility and the available tools and opportunities for future experiments.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma characterization by X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray imaging

An experimental campaign aiming to investigate electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma X-ray emission has been recently carried out at the ECRISs—Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources laboratory of Atomki based on a collaboration between the Debrecen and Catania ECR teams. In a first series, the X-ray spectroscopy was performed through silicon drift detectors and high purity germanium detectors, characterizing the volumetric plasma emission. The on-purpose developed collimation system was suitable for direct plasma density evaluation, performed “on-line” during beam extraction and charge state distribution characterization. A campaign for correlating the plasma density and temperature with the output charge states and the beam intensity for different pumping wave frequencies, different magnetic field profiles, and single-gas/gas-mixing configurations was carried out. The results reveal a surprisingly very good agreement between warm-electron density fluctuations, output beam currents, and the calculated electromagnetic modal density of the plasma chamber. A charge-coupled device camera coupled to a small pin-hole allowing X-ray imaging was installed and numerous X-ray photos were taken in order to study the peculiarities of the ECRIS plasma structure.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Energy partition, γ-ray emission, and radiation reaction in the near-quantum electrodynamical regime of laser-plasma interaction

When extremely intense lasers (I ≥ 10{sup 22} W/cm{sup 2}) interact with plasmas, a significant fraction of the pulse energy is converted into photon emission in the multi-MeV energy range. This emission results in a radiation reaction (RR) force on electrons, which becomes important at ultrahigh intensities. Using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations which include a quantum electrodynamics model for the γ–photons emission, the corresponding RR force and electron-positron pair creation, the energy partition in the laser-plasma system is investigated. At sufficiently high laser amplitudes, the fraction of laser energy coupled to electrons decreases, while the energy converted to γ-photons increases. The interaction becomes an efficient source of γ-rays when I > 10{sup 24} W/cm{sup 2}, with up to 40% of the laser energy converted to high-energy photons. A systematic study of energy partition and γ-photon emission angle shows the influence of laser intensity and polarization for two plasma conditions: high-density carbon targets and a low-density hydrogen targets. We find that in the opaque region, the laser-to-photon conversion efficiency scales as I{sub 0}{sup 3/2} for linearly polarized and I{sub 0}{sup 2−2.5} for circularly polarized lasers, respectively. In the relativistically transparent regime, the power-laws merge into I{sub 0}{sup 1/2} for both polarizations and photon emission peaks in the forward direction with a relatively small divergence angle (<20°), resulting in a collimated γ-ray beam.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗