Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Accelerators, Instrumentation”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

On sampling fractions and electron shower shapes

We study the usage of various definitions of sampling fractions in understanding electron shower shapes in a sampling multilayer electromagnetic calorimeter. We show that the sampling fractions obtained by the conventional definition (I) of (average observed energy in layer)/(average deposited energy in layer) will not give the best energy resolution for the calorimeter. The reason for this is shown to be the presence of layer by layer correlations in an electromagnetic shower. The best resolution is obtained by minimizing the deviation from the total input energy using a least squares algorithm. The 'sampling fractions' obtained by this method (II) are shown to give the best resolution for overall energy. We further show that the method (II) sampling fractions are obtained by summing the columns of a non-local {lambda} tensor that incorporates the correlations. We establish that the sampling fractions (II) cannot be used to predict the layer by layer energies and that one needs to employ the full {lambda} tensor for this purpose. This effect is again a result of the correlations.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

First Results of the LHC Longitudinal Density Monitor

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the world's largest particle accelerator. It is designed to accelerate and collide protons or heavy ions up to the center-of-mass energies of 14 TeV. Knowledge of the longitudinal distribution of particles is important for various aspects of accelerator operation, in particular to check the injection quality and to measure the proportion of charge outside the nominally filled bunches during the physics periods. In order to study this so-called ghost charge at levels very much smaller than the main bunches, a longitudinal profile measurement with a very high dynamic range is needed. A new detector, the LHC Longitudinal Density Monitor (LDM) is a single-photon counting system measuring synchrotron light by means of an avalanche photodiode detector. The unprecedented energies reached in the LHC allow synchrotron light diagnostics to be used with both protons and heavy ions. A prototype was installed during the 2010 LHC run and was able to longitudinally profile the whole ring with a resolution close to the target of 50 ps. On-line correction for the effects of the detector deadtime, pile-up and afterpulsing allow a dynamic range of 105 to be achieved. First measurements with the LDM are presented here along with an analysis of its performance and an outlook for future upgrades.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Portable Positron Measurement System (PPMS)

Portable Positron Measurement System (PPMS) is an automated, non-destructive inspection system based on positron annihilation, which characterizes a material's in situatomic-level properties during the manufacturing processes of formation, solidification, and heat treatment. Simultaneous manufacturing and quality monitoring now are possible. Learn more about the lab's project on our facebook site http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

IMPROVED LIFETIME OF A HIGH SPIN POLARIZATION SUPERLATTICE PHOTOCATHODE

Highly spin polarized electron beams are required for the operation of a wide range of accelerators and instruments. The production of such electrons requires the use of Negative Electron Affinity (NEA) activated GaAs-based cathodes operated in photoelectron guns. Because of their extreme sensitivity to poor vacuum conditions the degradation of the photoemission process is so strong that NEA activated GaAs-based photocathodes can only survive in the extreme vacuums typical of DC gun. State-of-the-art on photocathode technology for spin polarized beam productions are summarized. Recent results on the use of robust NEA coating based on the Cs-Te and Cs-Sb leading to improved operational lifetime of a high spin polarization photocathode are reviewed.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2012

A Compact Soft X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility Based on a Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator

X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are expensive instruments with the accelerator holding the largest portion of the cost of the entire facility. Using a high-energy gain dielectric wakefield accelerator (DWA) instead of the conventional accelerator may reduce the facility size and, significantly, its cost. We show that a collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator can, in principle, accelerate low charge and high peak current electron bunches to a few GeV energy with up to 100-kHz bunch repetition rate. Several such accelerators can share the same tunnel and cw superconducting linac (operating with a few-MHz bunch repetition rate), whose sole purpose is feeding the DWAs with wake producing low-energy, high-charge electron bunches with the desired periodicity. Then, ten or more x-ray FELs can operate independently, each using its own linac. In this paper, we present an initial case study of a single-stage 850-GHz DWA based on a quartz tube with a ~100-MV/m loaded gradient sufficient to accelerate a 50-pC main electron beam to 2.4 GeV at a 100-kHz bunch repetition rate in just under 30 meters. While the accelerated electron beam has a large energy chirp, we show that FEL gain can be maintained by appropriately tapering the undulator, although other schemes may also be possible.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

A novel digitization scheme with FPGA-base TDC for beam loss monitors operating at cryogenic temperature

Recycling integrators are common current-to-frequency converting circuits for measurements of low current such as that produced by Fermilab's cryogenic ionization chambers. In typical digitization/readout schemes, a counter is utilized to accumulate the number of pulses generated by the recycling integrator to adequately digitize the total charge. In order to calculate current with reasonable resolution (e.g., 7-8 bits), hundreds of pulses must be accumulated which corresponds to a long sampling period, i.e., a very low sampling rate. In our new scheme, an FPGA-based Time-to-Digital Convertor (TDC) is utilized to measure the time intervals between the pulses output from the recycling integrator. Using this method, a sample point of the current can be made with good resolution (>10 bits) for each pulse. This effectively increases the sampling rates by hundreds of times for the same recycling integrator front-end electronics. This scheme provides a fast response to the beams loss and is potentially suitable for accelerator protection applications. Moreover, the method is also self-zero-suppressed, i.e., it produces more data when the beam loss is high while it produces significantly less data when the beam loss is low.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Improving single slope ADC and an example implemented in FPGA with 16.7 GHz equivalent counter clook frequency

Single slope ADC is a common building block in many ASCI or FPGA based front-end systems due to its simplicity, small silicon footprint, low noise interference and low power consumption. In single slope ADC, using a Gray code counter is a popular scheme for time digitization, in which the comparator output drives the clock (CK) port of a register to latch the bits from the Gray code counter. Unfortunately, feeding the comparator output into the CK-port causes unnecessary complexities and artificial challenges. In this case, the propagation delays of all bits from the counter to the register inputs must be matched and the counter must be a Gray code one. A simple improvement on the circuit topology, i.e., feeding the comparator output into the D-port of a register, will avoid these unnecessary challenges, eliminating the requirement of the propagation delay match of the counter bits and allowing the use of regular binary counters. This scheme not only simplifies current designs for low speeds and resolutions, but also opens possibilities for applications requiring higher speeds and resolutions. A multi-channel single slope ADC based on a low-cost FPGA device has been implemented and tested. The timing measurement bin width in this work is 60 ps, which would need a 16.7 GHz counter clock had it implemented with the conventional Gray code counter scheme. A 12-bit performance is achieved using a fully differential circuit making comparison between the input and the ramping reference, both in differential format.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1999

Space Acceleration Measurement System-II: Microgravity Instrumentation for the International Space Station Research Community

The International Space Station opens for business in the year 2000, and with the opening, science investigations will take advantage of the unique conditions it provides as an on-orbit laboratory for research. With initiation of scientific studies comes a need to understand the environment present during research. The Space Acceleration Measurement System-II provides researchers a consistent means to understand the vibratory conditions present during experimentation on the International Space Station. The Space Acceleration Measurement System-II, or SAMS-II, detects vibrations present while the space station is operating. SAMS-II on-orbit hardware is comprised of two basic building block elements: a centralized control unit and multiple Remote Triaxial Sensors deployed to measure the acceleration environment at the point of scientific research, generally within a research rack. Ground Operations Equipment is deployed to complete the command, control and data telemetry elements of the SAMS-II implementation. Initially, operations consist of user requirements development, measurement sensor deployment and use, and data recovery on the ground. Future system enhancements will provide additional user functionality and support more simultaneous users.

Sutliff, Thomas J.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fiber-optic diagnostic system for future accelerator magnets

The next generation high energy physics accelerators will require magnetic fields at ~20 T. HTS coils will be an essential component of future accelerator magnets and several efforts are currently dedicated on designing 20 T HTS- LTS hybrid magnets. Among the existing challenges, there is the lack of a robust quench detection system for hybrid magnet technology. Another big challenge is represented by the high number of training quenches required by Nb3Sn magnets to reach performance level. In this framework it is important to find a tool that allow local real-time monitoring of magnet strain and temperature. In this paper, we propose the use of fiber optics sensors for diagnostic and quench detection in future accelerator superconducting magnets. Discrete and distributed fiber optic sensors have demonstrated to be a promising tool. The goal is to instrument hundreds of accelerator superconducting magnets and to move beyond the proof-of-concept level. Significant developments are still needed. Here, we are going to present the most recent results and discuss the most urgent technical developments in order to make those sensors a robust and reliable diagnostic tool for accelerator superconducting magnets over the next 10 year. We foresee that discrete fiber sensors will be a stable diagnostic probe for superconducting magnets over the next 3 to 5 years. More R&D work will be necessary for distributed fibers. The most urgent needs are the increase of sample rate and sensitivity. Close collaboration with vendors will be necessary to improve mechanical properties and fabrication processes in order to produce hundreds of meters of fiber and instrument a large number of accelerator superconducting magnets. Those R&D efforts will last up to 10 years with a founding level that spans between 5-10 M$.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Pion contamination in the MICE muon beam

Here, the international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will perform a systematic investigation of ionization cooling with muon beams of momentum between 140 and 240\,MeV/c at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ISIS facility. The measurement of ionization cooling in MICE relies on the selection of a pure sample of muons that traverse the experiment. To make this selection, the MICE Muon Beam is designed to deliver a beam of muons with less than $\sim$1% contamination. To make the final muon selection, MICE employs a particle-identification (PID) system upstream and downstream of the cooling cell. The PID system includes time-of-flight hodoscopes, threshold-Cherenkov counters and calorimetry. The upper limit for the pion contamination measured in this paper is $f_\pi < 1.4\%$ at 90% C.L., including systematic uncertainties. Therefore, the MICE Muon Beam is able to meet the stringent pion-contamination requirements of the study of ionization cooling.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1994

Summary Report of Mission Acceleration Measurements for STS-62, Launched 4 March 1994

The second mission of the United States Microgravity Payload on-board the STS-62 mission was supported with three accelerometer instruments: the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE) and two units of the Space Acceleration Measurements System (SAMS). The March 4, 1994 launch was the fourth successful mission for OARE and the ninth successful mission for SAMS. The OARE instrument utilizes a sensor for very low frequency measurements below one Hertz. The accelerations in this frequency range are typically referred to as quasisteady accelerations. One of the SAMS units had two remote triaxial sensor heads mounted on the forward MPESS structure between two furnance experiments, MEPHISTO and AADSF. These triaxial heads had low-pass filter cut-off frequencies at 10 and 25 Hz. The other SAMS unit utilized three remote triaxial sensor heads. Two of the sensor heads were mounted on the aft MPESS structure between the two experiments IDGE and ZENO. These triaxial heads had low-pass filter cut-off frequencies at 10 and 25 Hz. The third sensor head was mounted on the thermostat housing inside the IDGE experiment container. This triaxial head had a low-pass filter cut-off frequency at 5 Hz. This report is prepared to furnish interested experiment investigators with a guide to evaluating the acceleration environment during STS-62 and as a means of identifying areas which require further study. To achieve this purpose, various pieces of information are included, such as an overview of the STS-62 mission, a description of the accelerometer system flown on STS-62, some specific analysis of the accelerometer data in relation to the various mission activities, and an overview of the low-gravity environment during the entire mission. An evaluation form is included at the end of the report to solicit users' comments about the usefulness of this series of reports.

Rogers, Melissa J. B.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Preparing the MAX IV storage rings for timing-based experiments

Time-resolved experimental techniques are increasingly abundant at storage ring facilities. Recent developments in accelerator technology and beamline instrumentation allow for simultaneous operation of high-intensity and timing-based experiments. The MAX IV facility is a state-of-the-art synchrotron light source in Lund, Sweden, that will come into operation in 2016. As many storage ring facilities are pursuing upgrade programs employing strong-focusing multibend achromats and passive harmonic cavities (HCs) in high-current operation, it is of broad interest to study the accelerator and instrumentation developments required to enable timing-based experiments at such machines. In particular, the use of hybrid filling modes combined with pulse picking by resonant excitation or pseudo single bunch has shown promising results. These methods can be combined with novel beamline instrumentation, such as choppers and instrument gating. In this paper we discuss how these techniques can be implemented and employed at MAX IV.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗