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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 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Determination of activation products and resulting decommissioning implications for the Varian TruBeam linear accelerator - Paper 52

Modern medical linear accelerators used for the treatment of cancers are capable of operating at electron energies as high as 20 MeV. Above electron energies of 6 MeV, a measurable dose rate is obtained at the isocenter after beam termination. This is attributed to the activation of linear accelerator components through photonuclear reactions and neutron capture. Photons are produced as Bremsstrahlung during the collision of high-energy electrons with a heavy metal target, typically comprised of copper or tungsten. When photons exceeding the nucleon binding energy interact with a nucleus, neutrons are ejected. In the process of neutron capture, neutrons produced through ({gamma}, n) reactions are absorbed by a nucleus and the excess energy is emitted as a photon. Over the lifetime of an accelerator many components, such as the target, flattening filter, collimators, jaws, and treatment couch, are activated through these interactions. Although dependent on operating conditions, linear accelerators have an expected lifetime of 7 to 10 years. In Canada, at the end of their service, accelerators are typically sold for scrap, returned to a remanufacturing enterprise, or if the machine is still operational it can be retasked for continued use. Since many of the accelerator components have been exposed to a neutron fluence and activated to various extents, the requirements of the Canadian Nuclear Substance and Radiation Device regulations apply prior to final removal from the hospital. For shipments to the USA, there are exemption regulations to be considered. NRC regulation 10CFR 30.71 Schedule B lists a number of common radionuclides and the specific exemption quantity. Below these levels, radioactive materials may be freely transported from Canada to the USA without prior licensing from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) or United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). (authors)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2010

Hybrid Laser-Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

The concept of driving a driver/witness-type plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) with quasimonoenergetic double electron bunches from a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) is studied. In the quasimonoenergetic LWFA/SMLWFA (self-modulated LWFA) regime, it is possible to generate multiple quasimonoenergetic electron bunches with durations of only a few fs and distances of only a few tens of fs with a comparably simple experimental setup. In a subsequent high-density plasma afterburner stage the witness bunch energy can be boosted in the plasma wakefield generated by the driver. Such a hybrid system can increase the maximum energy output of a laser wakefield accelerator and is well suited to study driver/witness plasma accelerator phenomena and can be used as a cost-effective test-bed for future high-energy plasma-based accelerators.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Present Trends In The Configurations And Applications Of Electrostatic Accelerator Systems

Despite the worldwide economic meltdown during the past two years and preceding any stimulus program projects, the market for electrostatic accelerators has increased on three fronts: new applications developed in an expanding range of fields; technical enhancements that increase the range, precision, and sensitivity of existing systems; and new accelerator projects in a growing number of developing countries. From the single application of basic nuclear structure research from the 1930's into the 1970's, the continued expansion of new applications and the technical improvements in electrostatic accelerators have dramatically affected the configurations and capabilities of accelerator systems to meet new requirements. This paper describes examples of recent developments in cosmology, exotic materials, high resolution RBS, compact AMS, dust acceleration, ion implantation, etc.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experimental parameters for plasma wakefield acceleration in a narrow plasma column

Recent theoretical advancements propose multiple positron acceleration schemes in plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). One of the most promising ideas involves the creation of an electron-driven blowout wake within a finite-radius pre-ionized plasma column. This leads to the formation of an elongated region of sheath electrons at the closing of the first wake period capable of accelerating positrons while simultaneously providing a transverse focusing force. Additionally, the proposed scheme has shown to be a potential means of suppressing instabilities. We present an experimental opportunity to explore the narrow column PWFA at the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests II (FACET-II): the E333 experiment. As a pivotal first step towards achieving positron acceleration in PWFA, we have planned a precursor experiment utilizing the currently available single-bunch electron beam to study the physics of the narrow plasma PWFA scheme. We outline the feasible experimental parameters, including beam and ionization laser parameters, along with the required laser optics for the experiment. The primary observable signatures for this stage of the experiment are the final energy spectrum and transverse position of the electron bunch, anticipating reduced energy loss and enhanced beam guidance in the narrow plasma column compared to the nominal PWFA. Comprehensive simulations are used to detail our experimental plan.

Lee, Valentina [University of Colorado, Boulder, C↗
DOE OSTI2011

The Computer Program LIAR for Beam Dynamics Calculations in Linear Accelerators

Linear accelerators are the central components of the proposed next generation of linear colliders. They need to provide acceleration of up to 750 GeV per beam while maintaining very small normalized emittances. Standard simulation programs, mainly developed for storage rings, do not meet the specific requirements for high energy linear accelerators. We present a new program LIAR ('LInear Accelerator Research code') that includes wakefield effects, a 6D coupled beam description, specific optimization algorithms and other advanced features. Its modular structure allows to use and to extend it easily for different purposes. The program is available for UNIX workstations and Windows PC's. It can be applied to a broad range of accelerators. We present examples of simulations for SLC and NLC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Experimental Plans to Explore Dielectric Wakefield Acceleration in the THZ Regime

Dielectric wakefield accelerators have shown great promise toward high-gradient acceleration. We investigate the performances of a possible experiment under consideration at the FLASH facility in DESY to explore wakefield acceleration with an enhanced transformer ratio. The experiment capitalizes on a unique pulse shaping capability recently demonstrated at this facility. In addition, the facility incorporates a superconducting linear accelerator that could generate bunch trains with closely spaced bunches thereby opening the exploration of potential dynamical effects in dielectric wakefield accelerators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Plasma-wakefield accelerator simultaneously boosts electron beam energy and brightness

High-energy particle colliders and X-ray free-electron lasers demand electron beams with qualities currently achieved only in kilometer-scale radio-frequency accelerators. Plasma accelerators promise a compact alternative but have faced challenges in delivering the needed beam quality at relevant energies. Here, we demonstrate that a plasma-wakefield accelerator operating in the nonlinear regime acts as a transformer to simultaneously boost the energy and brightness of an electron bunch injected from the plasma. Using a 10-GeV drive bunch and a three-stage meter-scale plasma source, we generated electron bunches exceeding 20 GeV with sub-percent energy spread, 2 mm·mrad normalized emittance, and multi-kA peak current. A significant number of drive-bunch electrons lost over 90% of their energy, a prerequisite for high energy-conversion efficiency. This demonstration of an energy transformer ratio exceeding two and a brightness enhancement over an order of magnitude opens a path towards cost-effective accelerators for future colliders and light sources.

experimental particle physics↗
DOE OSTI2011

Versatile Low Level RF System For Linear Accelerators

The Low Level RF (LLRF) system is the source of all of the rf signals required for an rf linear accelerator. These signals are amplified to drive accelerator and buncher cavities. It can even provide the synchronizing signal for the rf power for a synchrotron. The use of Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) techniques results in a versatile system that can provide multiple coherent signals at the same or different frequencies with adjustable amplitudes and phase relations. Pulsing the DDS allows rf switching with an essentially infinite on/off ratio. The LLRF system includes a versatile phase detector that allows phase-locking the rf frequency to a cavity at any phase angle over the full 360 deg. range. With the use of stepper motor driven slug tuners multiple cavity resonant frequencies can be phase locked to the rf source frequency. No external phase shifters are required and there is no feedback loop phase setup required. All that is needed is to turn the frequency feedback on. The use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) allows amplitude and phase control over the entire rf pulse. This paper describes the basic principles of a LLRF system that has been used for both proton accelerators and electron accelerators, including multiple tank accelerators, sub-harmonic and fundamental bunchers, and synchrotrons.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

General description of electromagnetic radiation processes based on instantaneous charge acceleration in ''endpoints''

We present a methodology for calculating the electromagnetic radiation from accelerated charged particles. Our formulation - the 'endpoint formulation' - combines numerous results developed in the literature in relation to radiation arising from particle acceleration using a complete, and completely general, treatment. We do this by describing particle motion via a series of discrete, instantaneous acceleration events, or 'endpoints', with each such event being treated as a source of emission. This method implicitly allows for particle creation and destruction, and is suited to direct numerical implementation in either the time or frequency domains. In this paper we demonstrate the complete generality of our method for calculating the radiated field from charged particle acceleration, and show how it reduces to the classical named radiation processes such as synchrotron, Tamm's description of Vavilov-Cherenkov, and transition radiation under appropriate limits. Using this formulation, we are immediately able to answer outstanding questions regarding the phenomenology of radio emission from ultra-high-energy particle interactions in both the earth's atmosphere and the moon. In particular, our formulation makes it apparent that the dominant emission component of the Askaryan effect (coherent radio-wave radiation from high-energy particle cascades in dense media) comes from coherent 'bremsstrahlung' from particle acceleration, rather than coherent Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator to drive the future FEL Light Source.

X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are expensive instruments and a large part of the cost of the entire facility is driven by the accelerator. Using a high-energy gain dielectric wake-field accelerator (DWA) instead of the conventional accelerator may provide a significant cost saving and reduction of the facility size. In this article, we investigate using a collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator to provide a high repetition rate, high current, high energy beam to drive a future FEL x-ray light source. As an initial case study, a {approx}100 MV/m loaded gradient, 850 GHz quartz dielectric based 2-stage, wakefield accelerator is proposed to generate a main electron beam of 8 GeV, 50 pC/bunch, {approx}1.2 kA of peak current, 10 x 10 kHz (10 beamlines) in just 100 meters with the fill factor and beam loading considered. This scheme provides 10 parallel main beams with one 100 kHz drive beam. A drive-to-main beam efficiency {approx}38.5% can be achieved with an advanced transformer ratio enhancement technique. rf power dissipation in the structure is only 5 W/cm{sup 2} in the high repetition rate, high gradient operation mode, which is in the range of advanced water cooling capability. Details of study presented in the article include the overall layout, the transform ratio enhancement scheme used to increase the drive to main beam efficiency, main wakefield linac design, cooling of the structure, etc.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Space-Borne Electron Accelerator Design

Renewed interest in active experiments with relativistic particle beams in space has led to the development of solid-state radio-frequency (RF) linear accelerators (linac) that can deliver MeV electron beams but operate with low-voltage DC power supplies. The solid-state RF amplifiers used to drive the accelerator are known as high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), and at C-band (5–6 GHz) are capable of generating up to 500 watts of RF power at 10% duty factor in a small package, i.e., the size of a postage stamp. In operation, the HEMTs are powered with 50 V DC as their bias voltage; they thus can tap into the spacecraft batteries or electrical bus as the primary power source. In this paper we describe the initial testing of a compact space-borne RF accelerator consisting of individual C-band cavities, each independently powered by a gallium nitride (GaN) HEMT. We show preliminary test results that demonstrate the beam acceleration in a single C-band cavity powered by a single HEMT operating at 10% duty factor. An example of active beam experiments in space that could benefit from the HEMT-powered accelerators is the proposed Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Connection (CONNEX) experiment (Dors et al., 2017).

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Design of On-chip Power Transport and Coupling Components for a Silicon Woodpile Accelerator

Three-dimensional woodpile photonic bandgap (PBG) waveguide enables high-gradient and efficient laser driven acceleration, while various accelerator components, including laser couplers, power transmission lines, woodpile accelerating and focusing waveguides, and energy recycling resonators, can be potentially integrated on a single monolithic structure via lithographic fabrications. This paper will present designs of this on-chip accelerator based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide. Laser power is coupled from free-space or fiber into SOI waveguide by grating structures on the silicon surface, split into multiple channels to excite individual accelerator cells, and eventually gets merged into the power recycle pathway. Design and simulation results will be presented regarding various coupling components involved in this network.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2011

Coupler Studies for PBG Fiber Accelerators

Photonic band gap (PBG) fiber with hollow core defects are being designed and fabricated for use as laser driven accelerators because they can provide gradients of several GeV/m for picosecond pulse lengths. We expect to produce fiber down to {lambda} = 1.5-2.0 {micro}m wavelengths but still lack a viable means for efficient coupling of laser power into such structures due to the very different character of the TM-like modes from those used in the telecom field and the fact that the defect must function as both a longitudinal waveguide for the accelerating field and a transport channel for the particles. We discuss the status of our work in pursuing both end and side coupling. For both options, the symmetry of these crystals leads to significant differences with the telecom field. Side coupling provides more options and appears to be preferred. Our goals are to test gradients, mode content and coupling efficiencies on the NLCTA at SLAC. While there are many potential types of fiber based on very different fabrication methods and materials we will concentrate on 2D axisymmetric glass with hexagonal symmetry but will discuss several different geometries including 2D and 3D planar structures. Since all of these can be fabricated using modern techniques with a variety of dielectric materials they are expected to have desirable optical and radiation hardness properties. Thus, we expect a new generation of very high gradient accelerators that extends the Livingston-Panofsky chart of exponential growth in energy vs. time at greatly reduced costs. For illustration, Fig.1 shows a simulation of our first engineered fiber with an accelerating mode expected near 7.3 {micro}m that is now ready to test on the NLCTA. In this example, one sees the uniform longitudinal accelerating field in the central defect as first shown by Lin3 together with a hexagonal array of surrounding hot spots. Contrary to what one expects from the telecom field, Ng et al. have shown4 that the ideal end-coupling scheme for this structure appears as shown in Fig. 2 with a six-fold array of laser spots focused inside the end of the fiber. While convenient for an on-axis particle beam, this is inconvenient for the laser drive field as well as the tolerances it places on the end cleave of the fiber. The importance of the crystal symmetry is clearly shown so that one might expect side coupling to reflect a similar pattern which we find that it does unless the hexagonal symmetry is perturbed sufficiently. This can be done in several ways and will be discussed further.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Leveraging prior mean models for faster Bayesian optimization of particle accelerators

Tuning particle accelerators is a challenging and time-consuming task that can be automated and carried out efficiently using suitable optimization algorithms, such as model-based Bayesian optimization techniques. One of the major advantages of Bayesian algorithms is the ability to incorporate prior information about beam physics and historical behavior into the model used to make control decisions. In this work, we examine incorporating prior accelerator physics information into Bayesian optimization algorithms by utilizing fast executing, neural network models trained on simulated or historical datasets as prior mean functions in Gaussian process models. We show that in ideal cases, this technique substantially increases convergence speed to optimal solutions in high-dimensional tuning parameter spaces. Additionally, we demonstrate that even in non-ideal cases, where prior models of beam dynamics do not exactly match experimental conditions, the use of this technique can still enhance convergence speed. Finally, we demonstrate how these methods can be used to improve optimization in practical applications, such as transferring information gained from beam dynamics simulations to online control of the LCLS injector, and transferring knowledge gained from experimental measurements across different operating modes, such as accelerating different ion species at the ATLAS heavy ion accelerator.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Particle Acceleration by Magnetic Reconnection in Geospace

Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies during explosive energy-release phenomena in space, solar, and astrophysical plasma environments. While it has been established that magnetic reconnection plays an important role in the dynamics of Earth’s magnetosphere, it remains unclear how magnetic reconnection can further explain particle acceleration to non-thermal energies. Here we review recent progress in our understanding of particle acceleration by magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetosphere. With improved resolutions, recent spacecraft missions have enabled detailed studies of particle acceleration at various structures such as the diffusion region, separatrix, jets, magnetic islands (flux ropes), and dipolarization front. With the guiding-center approximation of particle motion, many studies have discussed the relative importance of the parallel electric field as well as the Fermi and betatron effects. However, in order to fully understand the particle acceleration mechanism and further compare with particle acceleration in solar and astrophysical plasma environments, there is a need for further investigation of, for example, energy partition and the precise role of turbulence.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Accelerating the solution of the S N equations with highly anisotropic scattering using the Fokker-Planck approximation

The discrete ordinates method can model forward-peaked transport problems accurately. However, convergence of discrete ordinates solution can become arbitrarily slow upon use of standard iterative procedures like source iteration. Standard zeroth and first moment-based acceleration methods like nonlinear diffusion acceleration and diffusion synthetic acceleration are ineffective in accelerating such problems because these methods do not correct higher order Legendre-moments of angular flux. In this paper, we explore the idea of using the Fokker-Planck approximation as a preconditioner to accelerate the convergence of solution of forward-peaked transport problems. Finally, we observe that such preconditioning can successfully reduce the iteration count by up to four orders of magnitude, and solver runtime by up to three orders of magnitude when compared to diffusion synthetic acceleration.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Response of a uniformly accelerated detector to massless Rarita–Schwinger fields in vacuum

We study the response of a uniformly accelerated detector modeled by a two-level atom nonlinearly coupled to vacuum massless Rarita–Schwinger fields. We first generalize the formalism developed by Dalibard, Dupont-Roc, and Cohen-Tannoudji in the linear coupling case, and we then calculate the mean rate of change of the atomic energy of the accelerated atom. Our result shows that a uniformly accelerated atom in its ground state interacting with vacuum Rarita–Schwinger field fluctuations would spontaneously transition to an excited state and the unique feature in contrast to the case of the atom coupled to the scalar, electromagnetic and Dirac fields is the appearance of terms in the excitation rate which are proportional to the sixth and eighth powers of acceleration. - Highlights: • We study the response of an accelerated detector to Rarita–Schwinger fields. • Detector spontaneously transitions to an excited state in vacuum. • Excitation rate contains terms of the sixth and eighth powers of acceleration.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Influence of spraying on the early hydration of accelerated cement pastes

In practice, most of the studies about the interaction between cement and accelerators is performed with hand-mixed pastes. However, in many applications mixing occurs through spraying, which may affect accelerators reactivity and the microstructure of the hardened paste. The objective of this study is to analyze how the mixing process influences the early hydration of accelerated cement pastes. Isothermal calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry and SEM imaging were performed on cement pastes produced by hand-mixing and by spraying, using equivalent doses of an alkali-free and an alkaline accelerator and two types of cement. Results showed a great influence of the spraying process on the reactivity of accelerators and on the morphology of the precipitated hydrates. Variations in hydration kinetics caused by the mixing method are explained and the results obtained might have a significant repercussion on how future research on the behavior of accelerated mixes will be performed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗