A sensitive beam-bunch phase detector

A sensitive heavy-ion beam-bunch phase detector has been developed by first examining the relationship between the sensitivity of an rf resonant cavity as a particle bunch detector and the shunt impedance of the same cavity as an accelerating structure. Then the various high shunt impedance rf cavities previously developed for accelerating heavy ions were evaluated for use as bunch detectors. A spiral-loaded geometry was chosen, built, and tested with beam. The sensitivity obtained, 14 μV per electrical nA of beam, is a factor 3 higher than previously reported.