NALU SCIENTIFIC, LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 09b

Description

NSL recognizes the need within the accelerator community for robust and accurate beam halo monitoring detectors. Non-idealities in the accelerating equipment, uncertainties in current machine controls, and random noise driven fluctuations all combine to diminish the quality and focus of accelerated charged particle beams which results in degradation of the resulting physics, losses which decrease the beam luminosity, and unintended damage to equipment. Additionally, many modern experiments require precise characterization and measurement of the incident beam in both the temporal and spatial domains in order to correctly analyze the resulting data produced at end station detectors. NSL is proposing the design, implementation, and testing of a single detector segment for a Time Resolved Beam Halo Monitor (TR-BHM) which will utilize diamond cross-strip detectors integrated with full waveform digitizers to measure the spatial and temporal profile of a beam halo at high repetition rates. Diamond strip detectors have been shown to be a highly radiation tolerant and robust material for the detection of charged particles when operated in ionization mode. NSL, through previous SBIR efforts, has developed radiation hard multiple-gigasample per second sample-and-hold digitizers which include digital integration and signal processing with low power draw and low cost per channel. Integration of the two technologies into a single detector package will allow for high occupancy beam sampling, with readout rates in the hundreds of kilohertz, timing resolution of traversing halo particles in the range of tens of picoseconds, and spatial resolution of 200-500um. The TR-BHM would be able to measure halo characteristics and contribute to beam machine control operations in near real time with minimal to no beam losses. Design and development of a single modular segment as a proof of concept for a full TR-BHM. This includes design, acquisition and assembly of two different diamond crystal types (single crystal and polycrystalline) and two different electrode bonding orientations. Additionally, testing of the completed segment will be undertaken using an ionizing photon light source, to which diamond crystals react similarly to accelerated electrons, through our contract with Brookhaven National Labs. This device can be used by accelerator beam scientists, diagnostics technicians, and operators in order to improve beam focusing and decrease losses from incorrect tuning by capturing beam halo characteristics at high sampling rates and with high precision.