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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Ultra-High Gradient Channeling Acceleration in Nanostructures: Design/Progress of Proof-of-Concept (POC) Experiments

A short bunch of relativistic particles or a short-pulse laser perturbs the density state of conduction electrons in a solid crystal and excites wakefields along atomic lattices in a crystal. Under a coupling condition the wakes, if excited, can accelerate channeling particles with TeV/m acceleration gradients in principle since the density of charge carriers (conduction electrons) in solids n 0 = ~ 10 20 – 10 23 cm -3 is significantly higher than what can be obtained in gaseous plasma. Nanostructures have some advantages over crystals for channeling applications of high power beams. The dechanneling rate can be reduced and the beam acceptance increased by the large size of the channels. For beam-driven acceleration, a bunch length with a sufficient charge density would need to be in the range of the plasma wavelength to properly excite plasma wakefields, and channeled particle acceleration with the wakefields must occur before the ions in the lattices move beyond the restoring threshold. In the case of the excitation by short laser pulses, the dephasing length is appreciably increased with the larger channel, which enables channeled particles to gain sufficient amounts of energy. This paper describes simulation analyses on beam- and laser (X-ray)-driven accelerations in effective nanotube models obtained from Vsim and EPOCH codes. Experimental setups to detect wakefields are also outlined with accelerator facilities at Fermilab and NIU. In the FAST facility, the electron beamline was successfully commissioned at 50 MeV and it is being upgraded toward higher energies for electron accelerator R&D. The 50 MeV injector beamline of the facility is used for X-ray crystal-channeling radiation with a diamond target. It has been proposed to utilize the same diamond crystal for a channeling acceleration POC test. Another POC experiment is also designed for the NIU accelerator lab with time-resolved electron diffraction. Recently, a stable generation of single-cycle laser pulses with tens of Petawatt power based on thin film compression (TFC) technique has been investigated for target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA). The experimental plan with a nanometer foil is discussed with an available test facility such as Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP).

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

An inverse free electron laser acceleration-driven Compton scattering X-ray source

Abstract The generation of X-rays and γ-rays based on synchrotron radiation from free electrons, emitted in magnet arrays such as undulators, forms the basis of much of modern X-ray science. This approach has the drawback of requiring very high energy, up to the multi-GeV-scale, electron beams, to obtain the required photon energy. Due to the limit in accelerating gradients in conventional particle accelerators, reaching high energy typically demands use of instruments exceeding 100’s of meters in length. Compact, less costly, monochromatic X-ray sources based on very high field acceleration and very short period undulators, however, may enable diverse, paradigm-changing X-ray applications ranging from novel X-ray therapy techniques to active interrogation of sensitive materials, by making them accessible in energy reach, cost and size. Such compactness and enhanced energy reach may be obtained by an all-optical approach, which employs a laser-driven high gradient accelerator based on inverse free electron laser (IFEL), followed by a collision point for inverse Compton scattering (ICS), a scheme where a laser is used to provide undulator fields. We present an experimental proof-of-principle of this approach, where a TW-class CO 2 laser pulse is split in two, with half used to accelerate a high quality electron beam up to 84 MeV through the IFEL interaction, and the other half acts as an electromagnetic undulator to generate up to 13 keV X-rays via ICS. These results demonstrate the feasibility of this scheme, which can be joined with other techniques such as laser recirculation to yield very compact photon sources, with both high peak and average brilliance, and with energies extending from the keV to MeV scale. Further, use of the IFEL acceleration with the ICS interaction produces a train of high intensity X-ray pulses, thus enabling a unique tool synchronized with a laser pulse for ultra-fast strobe, pump-probe experimental scenarios.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design Initiative for a 10 TeV pCM Wakefield Collider

This document outlines a community-driven Design Study for a 10 TeV pCM Wakefield Accelerator Collider. The 2020 ESPP Report emphasized the need for Advanced Accelerator R&D, and the 2023 P5 Report calls for the ``delivery of an end-to-end design concept, including cost scales, with self-consistent parameters throughout." This Design Study leverages recent experimental and theoretical progress resulting from a global R&D program in order to deliver a unified, 10 TeV Wakefield Collider concept. Wakefield Accelerators provide ultra-high accelerating gradients which enables an upgrade path that will extend the reach of Linear Colliders beyond the electroweak scale. Here, we describe the organization of the Design Study including timeline and deliverables, and we detail the requirements and challenges on the path to a 10 TeV Wakefield Collider.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

High performance SRF accelerator structure and method

A high performance accelerator structure and method of production. The method includes precision machining the inner surfaces of a pair of half-cells that are maintained in an inert atmosphere and at a temperature of 100 K or less. The method includes removing thin layers of the inner surfaces of the half-cells after which the roughness of the inner surfaces in measured with a profilimeter. Additional thin layers are removed until the inner surfaces of the half-cell measure less than 2 nm root mean square (RMS) roughness over a 1 mm2 area on the profilimeter. The two half-cells are welded together in an inert atmosphere to form an SRF cavity. The resultant SRF cavity includes a high accelerating gradient (Eacc) and a high quality factor (Q0).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Phase control with two-beam interferometry method in a terahertz dielectric wakefield accelerator

High-gradient, beam-driven wakefield acceleration in THz structures is a promising technology for future free electron lasers and colliders. In this scheme, the main beam is accelerated by the wakefield of the high current drive beam. The time separation between the main and drive beams has to be chosen carefully to ensure that the main beam is in an accelerating phase of the drive's wakefield. THz accelerating structures provide high gradient acceleration due to their small apertures, but their phase control is difficult due to the picosecond-scale period. Here, we report on a wakefield acceleration experiment in a 460 GHz dielectric wakefield accelerator (DWA). The optimum phase of the main beam during the experiment is determined with a two-beam wakefield interferometry (TBI) measurement. This is performed without the measurement of the main and drive beam bunch lengths or their separation. In TBI, the interference of the wakefields produced by the drive and main beams is measured with an integrating THz detector. The TBI signal, as a function of separation between the drive and main beams, exhibits a minimum due to destructive interference of these wakefields, which corresponds to maximum acceleration of the main beam as is confirmed by the energy spectrometer measurement. The maximum energy gain of 0.8 MeV and maximum energy loss of 1.2 MeV for the main beam have been measured, which agrees well with theoretical predictions. Published by AIP Publishing.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2018

New Insight on Nitrogen Infusion Revealed by Successive Nanometric Material Removal

In this study we present new insight on low temperature nitrogen infusion on bulk niobium superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities. Nitrogen infusion is a thermal treatment recently discovered at Fermilab that allows to reach high accelerating gradients, of the order of 45MV/m, with high Q-factors, of the order of 2 · 10¹⁰. Detailed depth dependent RF studies (by means of subsequent HF rinses) and comparisonwith SIMS results pinpointed interstitial nitrogen as the responsible for the improved performance and uncovered the extension of its profile inside the material.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Generation of High-Power, Reversed-Cherenkov Wakefield Radiation in a Metamaterial Structure

Here, we present the first demonstration of high-power, reversed-Cherenkov wakefield radiation by electron bunches passing through a metamaterial structure. The structure supports a fundamental transverse magnetic mode with a negative group velocity leading to reversed-Cherenkov radiation, which was clearly verified in the experiments. Single 45 nC electron bunches of 65 MeV traversing the structure generated up to 25 MW in 2 ns pulses at 11.4 GHz, in excellent agreement with theory. Two bunches of 85 nC with appropriate temporal spacing generated up to 80 MW by coherent wakefield superposition, the highest rf power that metamaterial structures ever experienced without damage. These results demonstrate the unique features of metamaterial structures that are very attractive for future high-gradient wakefield accelerators, including two-beam and collinear accelerators. Advantages include the high shunt impedance for high-power generation and high-gradient acceleration, the simple and rugged structure, and a large parameter space for optimization.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Long lifetime of bialkali photocathodes operating in high gradient superconducting radio frequency gun

Abstract High brightness, high charge electron beams are critical for a number of advanced accelerator applications. The initial emittance of the electron beam, which is determined by the mean transverse energy (MTE) and laser spot size, is one of the most important parameters determining the beam quality. The bialkali photocathodes illuminated by a visible laser have the advantages of high quantum efficiency (QE) and low MTE. Furthermore, Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) guns can operate in the continuous wave (CW) mode at high accelerating gradients, e.g. with significant reduction of the laser spot size at the photocathode. Combining the bialkali photocathode with the SRF gun enables generation of high charge, high brightness, and possibly high average current electron beams. However, integrating the high QE semiconductor photocathode into the SRF guns has been challenging. In this article, we report on the development of bialkali photocathodes for successful operation in the SRF gun with months-long lifetime while delivering CW beams with nano-coulomb charge per bunch. This achievement opens a new era for high charge, high brightness CW electron beams.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

R&D Towards High Gradient CW SRF Cavities

This talk will discuss Fermilab’s recent progress in the surface engineering of superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities geared toward producing simultaneously high quality factors and high accelerating gradients in cryomodules. We investigate possible microscopic mechanisms that drive improved performance by carrying out sequential RF tests on cavities subjected to low temperature baking. We compare performance evolution to observations made with material science techniques and find correlations with material parameters. We also discuss other key advancements that enable high gradient operation in cryomodules.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Correlating Surface Processing of Nb Superconducting RF Cavities with the Evolution of Surface Electronic States

Superconducting-radio frequency (RF) cavities provide an efficient way to accelerate particle beams with extremely high acceleration gradients while generating very small power dissipation. The few nanometers of the surface play a critical role in defining the RF performance of superconducting Nb based cavities. Over the past two decades, several pioneering surface treatment and processing methods have emerged, enabling remarkable improvements in superconducting cavity performance by simultaneously achieving high quality factors with increasing maximum acceleration gradients. These processing approaches include chemical polishing, distinct multi-step thermal treatments under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions over low to high temperature regimes, as well as high-temperature treatments under controlled nitrogen atmospheres. Beyond their macroscopic impact on RF performance, these methods produce distinct surface oxide configurations characterized by different valence states, oxide thicknesses, chemical uniformity, and oxygen concentration profiles extending into the near-surface bulk of niobium. In this work, we are trying to understand how the surface-processing methods and the resulting oxide/oxygen profiles affect the electronic structure of surface and the mechanism of superconductivity. Using a combination of X-ray photoemission and X-ray absorption spectroscopies, we investigate how the valence-band structure and the electronic density of states (DoS) near the Fermi level evolve under different surface treatments. By employing tunable photon energies across multiple elemental absorption edges, we use resonant photoemission to disentangle and identify the elemental contributions to specific valence-band features. Our observations show that different surface-processing methods lead to distinct temperature evolutions of the DoS and valence-band states near the Fermi level. Our results suggest variations in different Nb-O orbital hybridizations in distinct processes and point towards the possibility of different underlying mechanisms of superconductivity governed by surface chemistry and oxide configuration. We also correlate these distinct superconducting mechanisms with RF cavity performance, specifically focusing on measured surface resistance, the nature of the Q-slope, and quench fields observed in superconducting RF measurements. These results will enable us to identify the potential limiting factors and relevant controllable parameters that can be further optimized to improve the performance of superconducting RF cavities.

Tripathi, Malvika [Fermilab] (ORCID:00000001989251↗
DOE OSTI2019

Statistical Analysis of the Eigenmode Spectrum in the SRF Cavities with Mechanical Imperfections

The superconducting radio frequency (SRF) technology is progressing rapidly over last decades toward high accelerating gradients and low surface resistance making feasible the particle accelerators operation with high beam currents and long duty factors. However, the coherent RF losses due to high order modes (HOMs) excitation becomes a limiting factor for these regimes. In spite of the operating mode, which is tuned separately, the parameters of HOMs vary from one cavity to another due to finite mechanical tolerances during cavities fabrication. It is vital to know in advance the spread of HOM parameters in order to predict unexpected cryogenic losses, overheating of beam line components and to keep stable beam dynamics. In this paper we present the method of generating the unique cavity geometry with imperfections while preserving operating mode frequency and field flatness. Based on the eigenmode spectrum calculation of series of randomly generated cavities we can accumulate the data for the evaluation the HOM statistics. Finally, we describe the procedure for the estimation of the probability of the resonant HOM losses in the SRF resonators. The study of these effects leads to specifications of SC cavity and cryomodule and can significantly impact on the efficiency and reliability of the machine operation

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Measurements of Magnetic Field Penetration in Superconducting Materials for SRF Cavities

Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities used in particle accelerators operate in the Meissner state. To achieve high accelerating gradients, the cavity material should stay in the Meissner state under high RF magnetic field without penetration of vortices through the cavity wall. The field onset of flux penetration into a superconductor is an important parameter of merit of alternative superconducting materials other than Nb which can enhance the performance of SRF cavities. There is a need for a simple and efficient technique to measure the onset of field penetration into a superconductor directly. We have developed a Hall probe experimental setup for the measurement of the flux penetration field through a superconducting sample placed under a small superconducting solenoid magnet which can generate magnetic fields up to 500 mT. The system has been calibrated and used to measure different bulk and thin film superconducting materials. This system can also be used to study SIS multilayer coatings that have been proposed to enhance the vortex penetration field in Nb cavities.

Senevirathne, I. H.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Numerical Analysis of High-Order Modes in SRF Resonators for Particle Accelerators

Over the past decades, superconducting technology has rapidly evolved towards high accelerating gradients and low surface resistance, making it possible to operate particle accelerators with high average beam currents and large duty factors. However, RF losses due to coherent excitation of the HOM become the limiting factor for these regimes. Unlike the cavity operating mode, which is tuned separately, the HOM parameters can significantly vary from one cavity to another due to finite mechanical tolerances during the manufacturing process. Thus, it is of utmost importance to know the HOM parameter spread in advance in order to predict unexpected cryogenic losses, overheating of beam line components and maintain stable beam dynamics. In this paper, we present a method for generating cavity geometry with an arbitrary spread of mechanical imperfections and numerically evaluating HOM statistics. Knowing the spread of HOM parameters, we calculated the probability of resonant HOM losses in SRF accelerating cavities used in CW beam current machines such as the PIP-II and LCLS-II linacs, as well as for the SRF crab-cavity for the ILC project. Finally, we present experimental results of HOM spectra measurements in hundreds of 1.3 GHz cavities installed in LCLS-II cryomodules. Studying the effects of HOM excitation results in specifications of the SRF cavity and cryomodule and can significantly impact the efficiency and reliability of the machine operation.

Lunin, Andrei [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000290096792)↗
DOE OSTI2022

On possibility of low-emittance high-energy muon source based on plasma wakefield acceleration

We report plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA) channels are characterized by very high accelerating gradients and very strong focusing fields. We propose to employ these properties for effective production of low emittance high energy muon beams, consider muon beam dynamics in the PWFA cell and analyze various options and potential of the PWA-based muon sources.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Prototyping high-gradient mm-wave accelerating structures

We present single-cell accelerating structures designed for high-gradient testing at 110 GHz. The purpose of this work is to study the basic physics of ultrahigh vacuum RF breakdown in high-gradient RF accelerators. The accelerating structures are π-mode standing-wave cavities fed with a TM 01 circular waveguide. The structures are fabricated using precision milling out of two metal blocks, and the blocks are joined with diffusion bonding and brazing. The impact of fabrication and joining techniques on the cell geometry and RF performance will be discussed. First prototypes had a measured Q 0 of 2800, approaching the theoretical design value of 3300. The geometry of these accelerating structures are as close as practical to singlecell standing-wave X-band accelerating structures more than 40 of which were tested at SLAC. This wealth of X-band data will serve as a baseline for these 110 GHz tests. Furthermore, the structures will be powered with short pulses from a MW gyrotron oscillator. RF power of 1 MW may allow an accelerating gradient of 400 MeV/m to be reached.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗