AN INTENSITY AND POSITION MONITOR FOR PARTICLE BEAM DIAGNOSTICS

WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF ACCELERATORS EMPLOYING SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS SUCH AS THE CONTINUOUS ELECTRON BEAM ACCELERATOR FACILITY (CEBAF) AND THE RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLIDER (RHIC), A CORRESPONDING NEED HAS ARISEN FOR A NEW GENERATION OF DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR NONDESTRUCTIVELY MONITORING THE INTENSITY AND POSITION OF THE PARTICLE BEAMS. A SYSTEM THAT REPRESENTS A NEW APPROACH TO THE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE FOR POSITION AND INTENSITY MONITORING IS PLANNED IN THIS PROJECT. THE OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF THE SYSTEM DIFFERS FROM EXISTING THIN-WIRE PICKOFF ANTENNAS TUNED TO DETECT THE ELECTRIC FIELD FROM THE BEAM IN THAT THE MAGNETIC FIELD FROM THE CURRENT IS MEASURED DIRECTLY IN PICKUP LOOPS. THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE USE OF A CLOSED SUPERCONDUCTING LOOP, COUPLED TO A SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICE (SQUID). ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM INCLUDE A MUCH LOWER LIMIT ON MEASUREMENT THRESHOLD AND DYNAMIC RANGE DUE TO THE EXTREME SENSITIVITY OF SQUIDS FOR MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS, AND A GREATER FLEXIBILITY FOR INTEGRATING THE SYSTEM INTO THE BEAM PIPE BECAUSE OF THE SMALL DIMENSIONS OF THE PICKUP LOOPS. PHASE I WILL DETERMINE THE SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE PLANNED SYSTEM AND INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE TECHNIQUE. THE GOAL OF PHASE I RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A DESIGN FOR A PROTOTYPE BEAM POSITION AND INTENSITY MONITOR FOR USE AT CEBAF. SEVERAL TASKS WILL BE PERFORMED TO TEST EXPERIMENTALLY THE FEASIBILITY OF THE TECHNICAL APPROACH IN PHASE I AND TO CONDUCT AN EXTENDED ANALYSIS OF THE CAPABILITIES OF THE SYSTEM TO PERFORM ITS STATED OBJECTIVES. THE FINAL TASK IN PHASE I WILL BE TO COMPLETE THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM TO BE BUILD IN PHASE II. THIS APPROACH RESULTS INA STATE-OF-THE-ART SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES ENHANCED PERFORMANCE IN CRITICAL AREAS OVER EXISTING DEVICES AND AND IS ADAPTABLE TO A WIDE RANGE OF DESIGN PARAMETERS SUCH AS ACTIVE PROBE DIMENSIONS AND MEASUREMENT SENSITIVITY.