EPIR, INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 30f

Description

Next generation rare isotope beam facilities will be a critical component of the Department of Energy mission to understand the fundamental forces and particles of nature manifested in nuclear matter- These facilities require a huge financial investment for construction, and it is crucial to achieve and maintain maximum operation efficiency to enable uninterrupted use of the facilities- In producing and manipulating rare isotopes, precise electromagnetic manipulation of reaction products is required to deliver intense target nuclei beams with good ion optical quality and proper timing/energy characteristics- Magnetic-field probing at various stages of rare isotope production (ionization, purification, acceleration, and transport) is one of the essential diagnostic tools needed in routine rare isotope beam facility operation- The major technical issue with current magnetic-field probes used in high-power target facilities is the limited operation lifetime of these probes in high-radiation environments- Magnetic-field probes currently used in these applications tend to have lifetime of less than several weeks, significantly limiting operational efficiency of the facilities- Therefore, the development of a radiation-hard magnetic field probe for a magnetic flux density in the range of 0-2 ~ 5 Tesla is highly desirable- We propose a radiation-hard magnetic-field probing solution based on Doppler-free atomic spectroscopy- The probe consists exclusively of radiation-hard components, including a glass cell filled with atomic vapor coupled to optical fibers- The simple, radiation-hard, opto-atomic construction of the probe enables rugged and prolonged magnetic-field probing operation in both gamma ray and neutron-rich radiation environments-