Extraction of a 70-GeV/cProton Beam to the RAMPEX Setup by Using a Silicon Crystal

The experimental data on the formation of a stable proton beam with a 70-GeV/cmomentum extracted from the U-70 accelerator (Protvino) to the 14th channel with a bent silicon crystal (under conditions of operation of several setups) are presented. The beam is intended for the RAMPEX experimental facility with a polarized target. The beam intensity, angular divergence, and spot size on the target should be at least 5 × 10⁶protons per cycle, below 2.5 mrad, and no larger than 10 (horizontal) and 14 (vertical) mm, respectively. The results obtained show that the beam is stable in the single extraction mode, but its dimensions are slightly larger than those required by the experiment. An instability of the beam is observed when the beam is extracted to several experimental setups in parallel. Further investigations are planned in order to optimize the position and parameters of the silicon single crystal.     

Measuring the momentum dispersion of a proton beam extracted from the U-70 accelerator by channeling

The momentum dispersion of the proton beam extracted from the vacuum chamber of the U-70 accelerator by channeling was measured for the first time. At an 80-mrad bending angle of the Si single crystal, the following beam parameters were attained: an intensity of 10⁷ protons/s for 10¹² protons/s hitting the crystal, momentum dispersion of the beam Δp/p = 0.13%, and a background particle admixture of 0.03% or less.     

Studying a Mode of Intense Proton Beam Extraction by a Bent Crystal with Simultaneous Operation with Internal Targets on the U-70 IHEP Accelerator

A method for extracting a proton beam from the U-70 IHEP synchrotron using a bent silicon crystal at a simultaneous operation of several internal targets is described. The optimal range of the crystal bending angles is 0.5–2.5 mrad, and the crystal length along the beam is 2–5 mm. The extracted-beam intensity can be varied from 10⁷ to 6.0 × 10¹¹ protons per cycle of the U-70 operation, depending on the requirements of physical experimental installations. The method developed for the accelerated-beam extraction with the use of short crystals significantly extends the possibilities of conducting physical experiments on the accelerator.     

A source of gas, vapor, metal, and carbon ions based on a low-pressure hollow-cathode discharge

A compact source of gas, vapor, metal, and carbon ions based on a cold-hollow-cathode reflective discharge has been developed, in which a 6-mm-diameter flat target (Cu, Mo, W, C) is installed on the bottom of the cold cathode insulated from it. The density of the ion flow from cathode plasma reaches 100 mA/cm² at an accelerating voltage of up to 10 kV and a discharge current of 0.2-0.5 A. Vapors produced during ion sputtering of the target are ionized in the cathode and anode cavities. A beam containing ions of the plasma-producing gas and vapor is extracted throug h the channel in the reflector cathode. A fraction of the vapor of the sputtered target, the flow of which is sufficient for growing layers at a rate of ∼0.03 nm/s at a distance of 10 cm from the emission channel under the action of an ion beam, is extracted together with ions. The fraction of metal ions in the extracted beam is 0.05-0.10. The total current of the ion beam is 20-30 mA.     

Highly efficient extraction of a proton beam by using bent single crystals

A substantially increased beam extraction efficiency can be achieved in the case of a multiple beam’s passage through a crystal. This suggestion was verified in experiments with short (5–7 mm long) curved single crystal with bending angles of 1.5–1.7 mrad performed at the Institute of High Energy Physics. The peak effiency values obtained were 47±3%, and the maximum average efficiency was 42±2% for a 23% intensity taken from an accelerated beam. The maximum extracted beam intensity was 6×10¹¹ protons per cycle.     

Ion source with longitudinal ionization of a molecular beam by an electron beam in a magnetic field

A high-efficiency ion source for a mass-spectrometer’s detector of molecular beams and their scattering products is described. The ion source is designed according to a scheme of impact ionization of a beam particle by a longitudinal electron beam in a magnetic field with a strength of up to 130 mT. The design of the source developed is very flexible and has no limitations for use in any experiments with molecular beams. An ionization efficiency of particles of an atomic helium beam of 10^?3 ions/atom has been achieved. The useful signal-to-background ratio in the detector’s chamber is 3 × 10⁴ during detection of ions with mass-to-charge ratio m/q = 4 amu.     

A device based on a bent crystal with a variable curvature for controlling particle beams at accelerators

It has been recently proposed using a bent crystal with a declining curvature instead of a uniformly bent crystal in order to improve extraction and collimation of the circulating beam in the accelerator. Variable curvature crystal devices developed to implement this idea are described. Curvature values measured along the crystal plate are presented. It is shown that focusing of high energy beams can also be focused using the developed devices.     

A study of collimation and extraction of the U-70 accelerator beam using an axially oriented crystal

Extraction and collimation of the 50-GeV proton beam with a bent silicon crystal at the U-70 accelerator of the Institute for High Energy Physics (Protvino, Russia) was investigated. Until recently, proton beam extraction (and collimation) from accelerators has been effected using crystals with the (111) or (110) plane orientation, when the beam propagates far from the crystal axes. In the described experiment, the silicon crystal was oriented so that the proton beam was incident on it near the 〈110〉 axis. Under these conditions, a part of the beam was deflected by the crystal owing to the dynamic chaos phenomenon. The maximum beam extraction efficiency was as high as ~80%.     

Splitting of a 50-GeV proton beam by a slightly disturbing bent crystal

A station for splitting a 50-GeV proton beam using a bent crystal is described. Intelligent design of the bending device is a specific feature of this station, which minimizes loss of particles in beam splitting. The commissioning of the new station has made it possible for two experimental setups to operate at a time.     

Generation of an ion beam in a glow-discharge source

A mechanism of ion extraction from a glow-discharge ion source based on a hollow cathode and used for elemental analysis of solids, is considered Experiments have shown that two oppositely directed ion flows are formed from ions produced in the region of negative glow-discharge fluorescence. One flow has an ion energy ≥ 100 eV, is directed to the cathode, and bombards and sputters the analyzed sample. The sputtered atoms diffuse into the negative-glow region and are ionized. The second flow (low-energy ions) is extracted from the same negative-glow region and transported from the cathode to the surface of the anode chamber owing to an ambipolar diffusion. These ions are extracted from a hole in the anode chamber of a standard ion source by an electric field and are used for mass-spectrum analysis. The energy-distribution width for these ions is ∼5 eV. The intensity of the ion beam extracted from the anode hole is an order of magnitude higher than the intensity of the ion beam extracted from the cathode region. Original Russian Text ? G.G. Sikharulidze, 2009, published in Pribory i Tekhnika Eksperimenta, 2009, No. 2, pp. 105–109.     

A large-area continuous accelerator with the extraction of a high-density electron beam

The design features of the electron accelerator with a large-area 200-keV beam and results of its investigation are described. The accelerator is based on a set of discrete longitudinal filament cathodes and operates in the continuous mode. The cross section of the beam extracted into the atmosphere is 40 × 50 cm², and the maximal current density of the extracted electron beam is up to 100 μA/cm². The nonuniformity of the current density distribution over the electron beam cross section is 10% or less.     

A cryogenic source of slow monochromatic positrons

A cryogenic source of slow monochromatic positrons based on ²²Na radioactive isotope has been developed and produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. A monochromatic beam is formed from a continuous β⁺ spectrum with energies of 0–0.5 MeV using a solid neon moderator frozen onto a copper substrate that is cooled to temperatures of 5–7 K. The efficiency of condensation of neon onto the substrate is >99.8%. A slow positron beam with an intensity of 5.8 × 10³ particles/s and a mean energy of 1.2 eV at a spectrum width of 1 eV has been extracted from a ²²Na-based test source. The fraction of decelerated positrons is 1% of the total flux.     

Ion beam nanopatterning and micro-Raman spectroscopy analysis on HOPG for testing FIB performances

This work reports Ga⁺ focused ion beam nanopatterning to create amorphous defects with periodic square arrays in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and the use of Raman spectroscopy as a new protocol to test and compare progresses in ion beam optics, for low fluence bombardment or fast writing speed. This can be ultimately used as a metrological tool for comparing different FIB machines and can contribute to Focused Ion Beam (FIB) development in general for tailoring nanostructures with higher precision. In order to do that, the amount of ion at each spot was varied from about 10⁶ down to roughly 1 ion per dot. These defects were also analyzed by using high resolution scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The sensitivities of these techniques were compared and a geometrical model is proposed for micro-Raman spectroscopy in which the intensity of the defect induced D band, for a fixed ion dose, is associated with the diameter of the ion beam. In addition, the lateral increase in the bombarded spot due to the cascade effect of the ions on graphite surface was extracted from this model. A semi-quantitative analysis of the distribution of ions at low doses per dot or high writing speed for soft modification of materials is discussed.     

A low-pressure gas-discharge ion source with a hollow cathode and an output-aperture diameter of 420 mm

A gas-discharge ion source with a hollow cathode 700 mm in diameter and 500 mm in length is described. Two small-area anodes are positioned at the ends of the hollow cathode opposite to each other. A 420-mm-diameter extracting electrode is placed along the lateral wall of the hollow cathode at a distance of 250 mm from its center symmetrically relative to the anodes. A hot cathode is placed opposite to the extracting electrode. A beam of oxygen ions with a current density of up to 0.2 mA/cm² and a nonuniformity <12% over a 420-mm-diameter area at a distance of 200 mm from the extracting electrode was obtained. The optimal operating parameters of the ion source working with oxygen are as follows: a discharge current of 0.8–1.2 A, an operating pressure of (0.6–0.8) × 10^?4 Torr, and an extracting voltage of up to 400 V.     

Measurements of beam current density and proton fraction of a permanent-magnet microwave ion source

A permanent-magnet microwave ion source has been built for use in a high-yield, compact neutron generator. The source has been designed to produce up to 100 mA of deuterium and tritium ions. The electron-cyclotron resonance condition is met at a microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz and a magnetic field strength of 87.5 mT. The source operates at a low hydrogen gas pressure of about 0.15 Pa. Hydrogen beams with a current density of 40 mA/cm(2) have been extracted at a microwave power of 450 W. The dependence of the extracted proton beam fraction on wall materials and operating parameters was measured and found to vary from 45% for steel to 95% for boron nitride as a wall liner material.     

Deflection of ultrahigh energy particle beams by repeated reflections in bent monocrystals

Bent silicon monocrystals are used today in the planar channeling mode for beam extraction and collimation at large accelerators. Volume reflection is more efficient than channeling, though it has a small deflection angle. A device for repeated deflection of a proton beam using a few bent silicon strips in the reflection mode is described in this paper. Sequential silicon strips on the surface of a thick plate are bent by internal stresses in the crystal material resulting from the Twyman effect. As shown by the Monte Carlo calculations, this method for deflecting the beam is optimal for the teraelectronvolt energy range.     

A gas-ion source with a grid-stabilized plasma cathode

A two-stage source of a broad beam of gas ions is described. The source contains a grid-stabilized plasma cathode and an anode stage with a multicusp magnetic field. The emission current of the plasma cathode (which is based on a glow discharge with a hollow cathode) is controlled between 0.1 and 1 A. The voltage that is applied to a bipolar diode between its cathode grid and anode plasma and determines the energy of fast electrons ranges from 50 to 200 V. The operating pressure of the argon in the anode stage is 4 × 10^–3–1 × 10^–1 Pa. A beam of argon ions having an energy of up to 5 keV and a current of >100 mA is formed by a two-electrode ion-optical system with a working area of 50 cm².__________Translated from Pribory i Tekhnika Eksperimenta, No. 2, 2005, pp. 107–111.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Gavrilov, Kamenetskikh.     

Characteristics of low-energy ion beams extracted from a wire electrode geometry

Beams of argon ions with energies less than 50 eV were extracted from an ion source through a wire electrode extractor geometry. A retarding potential energy analyzer (RPEA) was constructed in order to characterize the extracted ion beams. The single aperture RPEA was used to determine the ion energy distribution function, the mean ion energy and the ion beam energy spread. The multi-cusp hot cathode ion source was capable of producing a low electron temperature gas discharge to form quiescent plasmas from which ion beam energy as low as 5 eV was realized. At 50 V extraction potential and 0.1 A discharge current, the ion beam current density was around 0.37 mA/cm(2) with an energy spread of 3.6 V or 6.5% of the mean ion energy. The maximum ion beam current density extracted from the source was 0.57 mA/cm(2) for a 50 eV ion beam and 1.78 mA/cm(2) for a 100 eV ion beam.     

Measuring the Beam Density of Accelerated <Superscript>12</Superscript>C Ions Using Computer Analysis of Microscopic Photographic Images of Etched CR-39 Plastic Surfaces

The numbers of detected ions and the beam density dispersions at different depths of plate locations that also cover the Bragg peak region were determined by automatically searching for etched micropores in photographs of surfaces of CR-39 plastic plates exposed to ¹²C ions with an energy of 216 MeV/amu in a chamber for radiobiological investigations at the TWAC–ITEP accelerator–accumulator facility. A computer method for seeking etched micropores along latent ion tracks in an exposed plastic is described. Frequency distributions of detected ions over microscopic areas of each surface for eight plates have been obtained and compared using a Gaussian function.     

Obtaining monochromatic beams of accelerated 6He ions with a near-Coulomb-barrier energy on the DRIB accelerator complex at the JINR

Two methods for obtaining monochromatic beams of accelerated ⁶He ions with energies around the Coulomb barrier on the DRIB accelerator complex at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) is described. In the first method, the MSP-144 magnetic spectrometer is used as a monochromator of low-energy ⁶He beam after its passing through an energy absorber. The energy resolution of the ⁶He beam, which is 500 keV, is governed by the linear dimension of the target in the focal plane (18 mm). In the other method, a special probe is used to investigate nuclear reactions with accelerated ⁶He beams without loss of the beam intensity. With this probe, it is possible to perform experiments on the internal beam of the postaccelerator (U-400 cyclotron) of the DRIB complex. As a result, a ⁶He beam with a required energy and a beam resolution of 150 keV or better is produced at the target.