PROGRAM AREA OVERVIEW --
NUCLEAR PHYSICS

 http://www.er.doe.gov/production/henp/nucphys.html

Nuclear physics research seeks to understand the structure and interactions of atomic nuclei and the fundamental forces and particles of nature as manifested in nuclear matter.  Nuclear processes are responsible for the nature and abundance of all matter, which in turn determine the essential physical characteristics of the universe.  The primary mission of the Nuclear Physics program is to develop and support the scientists, techniques, and facilities that are needed for basic nuclear physics research.  Attendant upon this core mission are responsibilities to enlarge and diversify the nation's pool of technically trained talent and to facilitate transfer of technology and knowledge to support the nation's economic base.

Nuclear physics research is carried out at National accelerator facilities and through university programs.  The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) and the Bates Linear Accelerator at MIT allow detailed studies of how quarks and gluons bind together to make protons and neutrons.  CEBAF is planning a future upgrade in which the electron beam energy is doubled from 6 to 12 GeV.  The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), now in operation at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), will instantaneously form submicroscopic specimens of quark-gluon plasma by colliding gold nuclei, thus allowing a study of the primordial soup of quarks and gluons thought to make up the early universe.  RHIC is planning a beam luminosity upgrade in the future; a new electron-ion collider is also being discussed.  The nuclear physics program supports research and facility operations that are directed towards understanding the properties of nuclei at their limits of stability and of the fundamental properties of nucleons and neutrinos.  This research is made possible with the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which provide complementary facilities for stable and radioactive beams as well as a variety of species and energies.  In addition, the operations of accelerators for in-house research programs at four universities (Yale University, Washington University, Texas A&M University, and Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) at Duke University) provide unique instrumentation with a special emphasis on training of students.  The nuclear physics program also supports non-accelerator experiments such as the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) facility, constructed by a collaboration of Canadian, English, and U.S. supported scientists, now taking data on solar neutrino fluxes and providing the first results on the “appearance” of oscillations of electron neutrinos into another neutrino type.  A proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) facility is being designed that would provide a way to explore the limits of nuclear existence.  By producing and studying highly unstable nuclei that are now formed only in the stars, scientists could better understand stellar evolution and the origin of the elements. 

Our ability to continue making a scientific impact to the general community relies heavily on the availability of cutting edge technology and advances in detector instrumentation, electronics, software, and accelerator design.  The technical topics which follow describe research and development opportunities in the equipment, techniques, and facilities that are needed to conduct and advance nuclear physics research at existing and future facilities.

 

13. NUCLEAR PHYSICS SOFTWARE AND DATA MANAGEMENT

Large scale data storage and processing systems are needed to store, access, retrieve, distribute, and process data from experiments conducted at large facilities, such as Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.  The experiments at such facilities are extremely complex and expensive, involving thousands of detectors that produce raw experimental data at rates of up to several hundred MB/sec, resulting in the annual production of data sets on the order of several hundred Terabytes (TB), with Petabytes (PB) of data in the near future.  Many 10s of Terabytes of data per year are distributed to many institutions around the U.S. and other countries for analysis by the scientific collaborators.  Research on large scale data management systems is required to support these large nuclear physics experiments.  All grant applications must explicitly show relevance to the nuclear physics program.  Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:

a. Large Scale Data Storage – Projections of the cost of data storage media show that magnetic disk media will soon be competitive with magnetic tape for storing large volumes of data.  Because current technology keeps all disk drives powered and spinning,  the infrastructure costs of operating a petabyte disk storage system could be prohibitive. However, one characteristic of nuclear physics datasets is that most of the data is accessed infrequently.  Therefore, grant applications are sought for new techniques leading to petabyte-scale magnetic disk systems that have low cost and low power usage, and that scale linearly with the amount of data accessed rather than the total storage capacity.

b. Large Scale Data Processing and Distribution – Some nuclear physics facilities produce 100s of TB of data per year, soon to be PB per year.  Many 10s of TB of data per year are distributed world-wide for analysis by the scientific collaborators.  A recent trend in nuclear physics is to construct these data handling and distribution systems using data grid infrastructure software such as Globus and Condor.  In the near future, these systems will use the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA), which is based upon Web Services.  At that time, it will be necessary for any proposed infrastructure software solutions to integrate well with this new data grid technology.  Grant applications are sought for: (1) hardware and/or software techniques to improve the effectiveness and reduce the costs of storing, retrieving, and moving such large data volumes, including, but not limited to, automated data replication coupled with application data catalogs, and distributed storage systems of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware; (2) hardware and/or software techniques to improve the effectiveness of computational and data grids for nuclear physics (see reference 3 for these uses) – examples include integrating the management of distributed open source Relational Data-Base Management System (RDBMS) with OGSA and developing application level monitoring services for status and error diagnosis; and (3) effective new approaches to data mining, automatic structuring of data and information, and facilitated information retrieval.  Applicants that propose data distribution projects are encouraged to contact the U.S. National Nuclear Data Center to determine relevance and possible future migration strategies into existing infrastructures.

c. Large Scale Data Archiving and Maintenance – One of the legacies of experimental nuclear physics experiments is the data produced.  Large projects like RHIC, Gammasphere, or the Jefferson Laboratory produce unique data, reflecting measurements that may never be repeated.  Experience tells us that only a small portion of the data is subjected to detailed analysis and published. Typical large research projects focus on the experiment and data taking but not on long term data preservation.  Therefore, grant applications are sought to develop permanent archiving and user-friendly Internet dissemination procedures for the data from nuclear physics experiments along with associated detector description and calibration information.

d. Cluster Interconnects – Large scale (thousands of CPU’s) computing platforms are needed to perform theoretical calculations of Lattice Quantum ChromoDynamics (LQCD), a method of extracting the predictions of the fundamental theory of the interactions of quarks.  While these science applications can use virtually any supercomputer architecture efficiently, the computational demands are such that the cost effectiveness of the platform (measured in floating point operations per second per dollar, as sustained by a large scale parallel application) is a significant consideration.  Clusters would be an appropriate platform for these calculations because of their low cost per compute node, but only if the cluster interconnects were of high bandwidth, low latency, and low cost.  Although current offerings fall short on at least one of these metrics, the science applications are such that nearest-neighbor communications predominate in a three or four dimensional torus; therefore, a fully interconnected switch fabric is not essential – a torus mesh with routing also would be a feasible design.  Grant applications are sought to develop mesh-communication-optimized cluster interconnects scalable to thousands of nodes at modest cost.  The interconnects must be well coupled to next generation commodity compute nodes (to achieve high bandwidth and low latency on future systems) and must have a cost well below the cost of the compute node.

References:

1.      Firestone, R. B., “Nuclear Structure and Decay Data in the Electronic Age,” Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 243(1):77-86, January 2000.  (ISSN: 0236-5731).  

2.      Foster, I. and Kesselman, C., The Grid:  Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1998.  (ISBN 1558604758)  

3.      Maurer, S. M., et al., “Science’s Neglected Legacy,” Nature, 405(6783):117-120, May 11, 2000.  (ISSN: 0028-0836)  

4.      Off-Line Computing for RHIC, Brookhaven National Laboratory, July 20, 1997.  (Full text available at: http://www.rarf.riken.go.jp/rarf/rhic/rhic-cc-j/.  To view, select ps or pdf to right of title.)  

5.      Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing in High Energy Physics, Berlin, Germany, April 7-11, 1997. (Proceedings available at: http://www.ifh.de/CHEP97/chep97.htm)  

6.      Watson, C., “High Performance Cluster Computing with an Advanced Mesh Network,” Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.  http://www.jlab.org/hpc/docs/Mesh-whitepaper.htm  

7.      National Computational Infrastructure for Lattice Gauge Theory, http://www.lqcd.org/scidac/  

8.      The Globus Project, University of Chicago, http://www.globus.org  

9.      Condor High Throughput Computing, University of Wisconsin, http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/  

10.  Towards Open Grid Services Architecture, University of Chicago, http://www.globus.org/ogsa  

11.  Web Services Description Language, World Wide Web Consortium, http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl

 

14. NUCLEAR PHYSICS ELECTRONICS DESIGN AND FABRICATION

The DOE seeks developments in detector instrumentation electronics with improved energy, position and timing resolution, sensitivity, rate capability, stability, dynamic range, durability, pulse shape discrimination capability, and background suppression.  Of particular interest are innovative readout electronics for use with the nuclear physics detectors described in Topic 16.  All grant applications must explicitly show relevance to the nuclear physics program. Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:

a. Advances in Digital Electronics¾Digital signal processing electronics are needed to replace analog signal processing in nuclear physics applications.  Grant applications are sought to develop:  (1) digital processors that simplify the analog design, using such features as pile-up rejection and ballistic deficit correction; (2) digital pulse processing electronics for commonly used nuclear physics detectors in general, and for position sensitive solid-state detectors in particular; and (3) fast digital processing electronics that improve the accuracy of the analog electronics, such as in determining the position of interaction points (of particles or photons) to an accuracy smaller than the size of the detector segments.

b. Integrated Circuits¾Grant applications are sought for custom designed integrated circuits, and for circuits and systems, for rapidly processing data from highly segmented, position-sensitive germanium detectors (pixel sizes of approximately 1 cm2) and from particle detectors (e.g., gas detectors, scintillation counters, silicon drift chambers, silicon strip detectors, particle calorimeters, and Cherenkov counters) used in nuclear physics experiments.  Areas of specific interest include:  (1) representative circuits such as low noise preamplifiers, amplifiers, peak sensors, analog storage devices, analog-to-digital and time-to-digital converters, transient digitizers, and time-to-amplitude converters; (2) multiple sampling ASICs, to allow for pulse shape analysis; (3) readout electronics for solid-state pixilated detectors, including interconnection technologies and amplifier/sample-and-hold integrated circuits; and (4) constant fraction discriminators with uniform response for low and high energy gamma-rays.  These circuits should be fast; low-cost; high-density; configurable in software for thresholds, gains, etc.; easy to use with commercial auxiliary electronics; low power; compact; and efficiently packaged for multichannel devices.

In addition, planned luminosity upgrades at RHIC and experiments at the Large Hadron Collider will require fine-grained vertex and tracking detectors (both silicon and gas) for high particle multiplicity environments.  Therefore, grant applications are sought for advances in microelectronics that are specifically designed for low noise amplification and processing of detector signals, and that are suitable for these next generation detectors.  The microelectronics and associated interconnections must be lightweight and have low power dissipation.  Designs that minimize higher gate leakage currents due to tunneling and maintain dynamic range would be of particular interest.

c. Advanced Devices and Systems ¾So called Active Pixel Sensors in CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology are replacing Charge Coupled Devices as imaging devices and cameras for visible light. Several laboratories are exploring the possibility of using such devices as direct conversion particle detectors.  The charge produced by an ionizing particle in the epitaxial layer is collected by diffusion on a sensing electrode in each pixel.  The charge is amplified by a relatively simple low noise circuit in each pixel and read out in a matrix arrangement.  If successful, this approach would make possible high resolution position sensitive particle detectors with very low mass (only about 100 microns of silicon in a single layer).  This approach would be clearly superior to the present technology of hybrid vertex detectors consisting of a separate silicon detector layer bump-bonded to a CMOS readout circuit. Grant applications are sought to attempt this very significant advance in integrated detector-electronics technology, using CMOS monolithic circuits as particle detectors.  The new active pixel detector with its integrated electronic readout should be based on a standard CMOS process. The challenge is to design the sensor and low noise readout circuits to have sufficiently high sensitivity and low power dissipation in order to detect the charge signal developed in a thin epitaxial layer (~10 microns), as available in some of the standard CMOS processes.

In addition, grant applications are sought for improved or advanced devices and systems used in conjunction with the electronic circuits and systems described in subtopics a and b.  Areas of interest regarding devices include radiation-hardened, wide-bandgap semiconductors (i.e., semiconductor materials with bandgaps greater than 2.0 electron volts, including Silicon Carbide (SiC), Gallium Nitride (GaN), and any III-Nitride alloys), inhomogeneous semiconductors such as SiGe, and device processes such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) or silicon-on-sapphire (SOS).   Areas of interest regarding systems include bus systems, data links, event handlers, multiple processors, trigger logics, and fast buffered time and analog digitizers.  For detectors that generate extremely high data volumes (e.g., >500Gb/s), advanced high-bandwidth data links are of interest. Lastly, generalized software and hardware packages, with improved graphic and visualization capabilities, for the acquisition and analysis of nuclear physics research data are also of interest.

d. Manufacturing and Advanced Interconnection Techniques¾Grant applications are sought to develop: (1) manufacturing techniques for large, thin, multiple-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs) with plated-through holes with dimensions from 2m x 2m to 5m x 5m and 100-200 micron thick (these PCBs would have use in cathode pad chambers, cathode strip chambers, time projection chamber cathode boards, etc); (2) techniques to add plated-through holes in a reliable, robust way to large rolls of metallized mylar or kapton (this would have applications in detectors such as time expansion chambers or large cathode strip chambers); and (3) miniaturization techniques for connectors and cables with 5 times to 10 times the density of standard interdensity connectors.

Lastly, many next generation detectors will have highly segmented electrode geometries with 5-5000 channels per square centimeter, covering areas up to several square meters. Conventional packaging and assembly technology cannot be used at these high densities. Grant applications are sought to develop:  (1) advanced interconnect technologies that address the issues of high density, area-array connections including modularity, reliability, repair/rework, and electrical parasites; (2) technology for aggregating and transporting the signals (analog and digital) generated by the front-end electronics, and for distributing and conditioning power and common signals (clock, reset, etc.); (3) low-cost methods for efficient cooling of on-detector electronics; and (4) standards for interconnecting ASICs into a single system for a given experiment, where individual circuits may have been developed by diverse groups in different organizations – this would include combining different technologies with different voltage levels and signal types, with the goal of possibly reusing the developed circuits in future experiments.

References:

1.      “1999 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Seattle, WA, October 24-30, 1999 ,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 47(3 pt.2):729-1257, June 2000.  (ISSN: 0018-9499)

2.      Conceptual Design Report for the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, June 15, 1992.  (Report No. LBL-PUB-5347) (NTIS Order No. DE92041174)*  

3.      Kroeger, R. A., et al., “Charge Sensitive Preamplifier and Pulse Shaper Using CMOS Process for Germanium Spectroscopy,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 42(4 pt.1):921-924, August 1995.  (ISSN: 0018-9499)  

4.      PHENIX Conceptual Design Report:  An Experiment to be Performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Brookhaven National Laboratory, January 29, 1993.  (Report No. BNL-48922) (NTIS Order No. DE93015759)*  

5.      “Proceedings of the International Symposium on Solid State Detectors for the 21st Century, Osaka, Japan, December 4-6, 1998,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A–Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 436(1-2), October 21, 1999.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)**  

6.      Makdisi, Y. and Stevens, A. J., Proceedings of the Symposium on Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Detector R& D, Upton, NY, October 10-11, 1991, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1991.  (Report No. BNL-52321) (NTIS Order No. DE93010855/HDM)*  

7.      Lee, I-Y., ed., Proceedings of the Workshop on the Experimental Equipment for an Advanced ISOL Facility, Berkeley, CA, July 22-25, 1998, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), August 15, 1998.  (Report No. LBNL-42138) (OSTI Document No. DE00760328) (Available via interlibrary loan only.  Cannot be loaned to individuals.  Contact LBNL Library at:  Library@lbl.gov) (1999 summary of proceedings, including recommendations, available at:  http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/760328-zVOiiK/webviewable/)  

8.      Simpson, M. L., et al., “An Integrated, CMOS, Constant-Fraction Timing Discriminator for Multichannel Detector Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 42(4, pt. 1):762-766, August 1995.  (ISSN: 0018-9499)  

9.      Thomas, S. L., et al., “A Modular Amplifier System for the Readout of Silicon Strip Detectors,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 288(1):212-218, March 1, 1990.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)**  

10.  Deptuch, G., et al., “Development of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors for Charged Particle Tracking,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, in press.**  

11.   Ionascut-Nedelcescu, A., et al., “Radiation Hardness of Gallium Nitride,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 49(6):2733-2738, December 2002.  (ISSN: 0018-9499)  

12.  Dodd, J. R., et al., “Charge Collection in SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) capacitors and circuits and its effect on SEU (Single-Event Upset) hardness,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 49(6):2937-2947, December 2002.  (ISSN: 0018-9499)

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*    Available from National Technical Information Service (NTIS).  Telephone: 1-800-553-6847.  Web site: http://www.ntis.gov/  (Please note:  Items that appear to be unavailable via the Web site might be obtained by phoning NTIS.  See Solicitation General Information and Guidelines, section 7.1.)

**  For ordering information or to view abstract, see:  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/publications/journal/physics.

 

15. NUCLEAR PHYSICS ACCELERATOR TECHNOLOGY

The Nuclear Physics program of the Department of Energy (DOE) supports a broad range of activities aimed at research and development related to the science, engineering, and technology of heavy-ion, electron, and proton accelerators and associated systems.  Research and development is desired that will advance fundamental accelerator technology and its applications to nuclear physics scientific research.  Areas of interest include the basic technologies of the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s superconducting Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) with heavy ion beam energies up to 100 GeV/amu and polarized proton beam energies up to 250 GeV, technologies associated with RHIC luminosity upgrades and the development of an electron-ion collider, superconducting radio frequency (srf) linear accelerators such as the electron machine at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), and development of devices and/or methods that would be useful in the generation of intense accelerated beams of radioactive isotopes related to the construction of a Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) facility.  Relevance of applications to nuclear physics must be explicitly described.  Grant applications that propose using the resources of a third party (such as a DOE laboratory) must include, in the application, a letter of certification from an authorized official of that organization. Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:

a. Materials and Components for Radio Frequency Devices—Grant applications are sought to improve or advance superconducting and room temperature materials or components for radio frequency (rf) devices used in particle accelerators.  Areas of interest include:  (1) peripheral components, for both room temperature and superconducting structures, such as ultra high vacuum seals, terminations, cryogenic radio frequency windows, rf power couplers, and magnetostrictive or piezoelectric cavity tuning mechanisms; (2) materials that efficiently absorb microwaves from 2 to 90 GHz and are compatible with ultra-high vacuum, particulate-free environments at 2 to 4 K; (3) methods for manufacturing superconducting radio-frequency (>500 MHz) accelerating structures with Q0<1010 at 2.0 K; (4) improved superconducting materials that have lower RF losses, operate at higher temperatures, and/or have higher RF critical fields than sheet niobium; (5) innovative designs for hermetically sealed helium refrigerators and other cryogenic equipment that simplify procedures and reduce costs associated with repair and modification; (6) development of simple, low-cost mechanical techniques for damping length oscillations in accelerating structures, effective in the 10-300 Hz range at 2 Kelvin; and (7) development of techniques to create a layer of niobium on the interior of a copper elliptical cavity, such as by energetic ion deposition, so that the resulting 800-1500 MHz structures have Q0 > 8 x 109 at 2 K and so that the overall fabrication costs are reduced relative to using sheet niobium.

Grant applications are also sought for the design, computer-modeling, and hardware development of 5 kW and 13 kW cw power sources at 1497 MHz.  Examples of candidate technologies include (but are not limited to): solid-state devices, multi-cavity klystrons, Inductive-Output Tubes (IOT’s) or hybrids of those technologies.  The devices should: (1) be capable of operating efficiently over a range of output power levels; (2) include a method for power adjustment other than using the rf drive signal and the voltage of any primary dc source – for example, a klystron should include a gun-current modulating electrode; and (3) have an ac-to-rf conversion efficiency greater than 50%.  Interested parties should contact Dr. Leigh Harwood at Jefferson Laboratory [harwood@jlab.org] for further specifications.

Lastly, grant applications are sought for a new generation of high-voltage (up to 200 k VDC) electronic switching devices with peak current capability on the order of 100 A.  Such devices should also be capable of operating as very high power (tens of Megawatts), low-frequency (below 100 MHz) rf power amplifiers with suitable external rf circuits.  A possible technology is the Hobetron.  Interested parties should contact Abbi Zolfaghari (abbi@bates.mit.edu) at MIT-Bates Laboratory.

b.  Design and Operation of Radio Frequency Beam Acceleration Systems—Grant applications are sought for the design, fabrication, and operation of radio frequency accelerating structures and systems for heavy-ion accelerators.  Areas of interest include: (1) continuous wave (cw) structures, both superconducting and non-superconducting, for the acceleration of beams in the velocity regime between 0.001 and 0.01 times the velocity of light and with charge-to-mass ratios between 1/30 and 1/240; (2) superconducting rf accelerating structures appropriate for RIA drivers, for particles with speeds in the range of 0.02-0.8 times the speed of light; (3) innovative techniques for field control of ion acceleration structures  (1º of phase and 0.1% amplitude) and electron acceleration structures (0.1º of phase and 0.01% amplitude) in the presence of 10-100 Hz variations of the structures’ resonant frequencies (0.1-1.5 GHz); (4) multi-cell, superconducting, 0.5-1.5 GHz accelerating structures that have sufficient higher-order mode damping for use in energy-recovering linac-based devices with ~1 A of electron beam; (5) methods for preserving beam quality by damping beam-break-up effects in the presence of otherwise unacceptably-large higher-order cavity modes – one  example of which would be a very high bandwidth feedback system; and (6) methods and/or devices for reducing the emittance of relativistic ion beams – such as electron or optical-stochastic cooling.

c. Particle Beam Sources and Techniques—Grant applications are sought to develop:  (1) particle beam ion sources with improved intensity, emittance, and range of species (areas of interest include high-charge-state sources for heavy ions, sources for negative and light ions, and polarized sources for hydrogen ions and electrons); (2) ion sources for radioactive beams (emphasizing aspects such as high efficiency, high-charge-state ions, small emittance and energy spread, high temperature operation for coupling to high temperature production targets, and element selectivity – e.g., through the use of laser ionization); (3) techniques for secondary radioactive beam collection, charge equilibration, and cooling; (4) methods and devices to increase the charge state of ion beams (e.g., by the use of special electron-cyclotron-resonance ionizers or special stripping techniques); (5) high brightness electron beam sources utilizing continuous wave (cw) superconducting rf cavities with integral photocathodes operating at high acceleration gradients; (6) ~1 GHz cw polarized electron sources delivering beams of ~10 mA with longitudinal polarization of ~80%; (7) novel high quantum efficiency, long life photocathode materials, such as chalcopyrites, for brightness electron sources with polarizations >90%; (8) devices, systems, and sub-systems for producing high current (>200µA), variable-helicity beams of  electrons with polarizations >80%, and which have very small helicity-correlated changes in beam intensity, position, angle, and emittance; (9) methods to improve high voltage stand-off and reduce field emission from high voltage electrodes in the presence of work function lowering material (i.e., cesium), and which are compatible with ultra high vacuum environments; (10) wavelength tunable (700 to 850 nm) mode-locked lasers with pulse repetition rate between 0.5 and 3 GHz and average output power >10 W; and (11) a single wavelength 532 nm mode-locked laser with pulse repetition rate 0.5 to 3 GHz and average power ~ 100 W.  Grant applications are also sought to develop software that adds significantly to the state-of-the-art in the simulation of such physical processes as intra-beam scattering, electron cooling, beam dynamics, transport and instabilities, electron or plasma discharge in vacuum under the influence of charged beams, etc.

d. Accelerator Control and Diagnostics—Grant applications are sought for:  (1) “intelligent” software and hardware to facilitate the improved control and optimization of charged particle accelerators and associated components for nuclear physics research (developments that offer generic solutions to problems in the initial choice of operation parameters and the optimization of selected beam parameters with automatic tuning are especially encouraged); (2) advanced beam diagnostics concepts and devices that provide high speed computer-compatible measurement and monitoring of particle beam intensity, position, emittance, polarization, luminosity, momentum profile, time of arrival, and energy (including such advanced methods as neural networks or expert systems and techniques that are nondestructive to the beams being monitored); (3) beam diagnostic devices that have increased sensitivities through the use of superconducting components, such as filters based on high Tc superconducting technology or Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices; (4) measurement devices/systems for cw beam currents in the range 0.1 to 100 µA with very high precision (<10-4) and short integration times;  (5) beam diagnostics for ion beams with intensities less than 107 nuclei/second; (6) non-destructive beam diagnostics for stored ion beams such as at the RHIC and/or for 100 mA class electron beams; and (7) devices that can perform direct 12-14 bit digitization of signals at 0.5-2 GHz and have bandwidths of 100+ kHz.

References:

1.      Duggan, J. L. and Morgan, I. L., eds., Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference Denton, TX, November 6-9, 1996, New York:  American Institute of Physics, 1997.  (ISBN: 1-56396-652-2) (AIP Conference Proceedings No. 392)*  

2.      Duggan, J. L. and Morgan, I. L., eds., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 99(1-4), May 1995.  (ISSN: 0168-583X)  

3.      Facco, A., et al., “Mechanical Stabilization of Superconducting Quarter Wave Resonators,” Proceedings of the 1997 17th Particle Accelerator Conference, PAC-97 Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 12-16, 1997, 3:3084-3086, IEEE, 1998.  (ISBN: 0-7803-4376-X)  

4.      Grunder, H. A., “CEBAF - Commissioning and Future Plans,” Proceedings of the 1995 Particle Accelerator Conference, Dallas, TX, May 1-5, 1995, New York:  IEEE, 1995.  (ISBN: 0-7803-2934-1) (IEEE Catalog No. CH35843)  

5.      Historical Evolution of the Plans for CEBAF @ 12 GeV, U.S. DOE Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory, http://www.jlab.org/div_dept/physics_division/GeV.html  

6.      Harrison, M., “The RHIC Project–Status and Plans,” Proceedings of the 1995 Particle Accelerator Conference, Dallas, TX, May 1-5, 1995, 1:401-405, New York: IEEE, 1995.  (ISBN: 0780329341) (IEEE Catalogue No. 95CH35843) (Also available in book form:  Grupen, C., ed., Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics & Cosmology, No. 5, Cambridge University Press, July 1996.  (ISBN: 0521552168)  

7.      eRHIC:  The Electron-Ion-Collider at BNL, U.S. DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/publish/abhay/Home_of_EIC/  

8.      Hill, C. and Vretenar, M., Linac69:  Proceedings of the 18th International Linac Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, August 26-30, 1996, 2 Vols., Geneva, Switzerland:  CERN, 1996.  (ISBN: 92-9083-093-X) (CERN Publ. 96-07) (Full text of proceedings available at:  http://linac96.web.cern.ch/Linac96/Proceedings/)

 

9.      Kraimer, M., et al., “Experience with EPICS in a Wide Variety of Applications,” Proceedings of the 1997 Particle Accelerator Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 12-16, 1997, 2:2403-2409, IEEE, 1998.  (ISBN: 078034376X)  

 

10.  Ludlam, T. W. and Stevens, A. J., A Brief Description of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory, June 1993. (Report No. BNL-49177) (NTIS Order No. DE93040311.  See Solicitation Information and Guidelines, section 7.1.)  

11.  Proceedings of the 1999 Particle Accelerator Conference, New York, New York, Mar. 29-Apr. 2, 1999, IEEE, 1999.  (ISBN: 0-7803-5573-3) (IEEE Catalog No. 99CH36366)  

12.   Review of Scientific Instruments, 71(2):603-1239, February 2000. (ISSN: 0034-6748)  

13.  Review of Scientific Instruments, 67(3, Part 2):878-1683, 1996.  (ISSN: 0034-6748)  

14.  Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA), Oak Ridge Associated Universities, http://www.orau.org/ria/  

15.  Stephenson, E. J. and Vigdor, S. E., eds., Polarization Phenomena in Nuclear Physics:  Eighth International Symposium, Bloomington, IN, September 1994, Woodbury, NY:  American Institute of Physics, September 1995.  (ISBN: 1563964821) (AIP Conference Proceedings No. 339) (ISSN: 0094-243X)*  

16.  True, R. B., et al., “The HOBETRON and HOBETRON-PLUS,” Proceedings of the International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC) 2000, Monterey, CA, May 2-4, 2000, IEEE, July 2000.  (ISBN: 0780359879) (To browse for abstract, see:  http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp.  On menu at left, select “Conference Proceedings” and then the letter “V.”  The link for IVEC 2000 abstracts will be first on the list.)  

17.  True, Richard. B., et al., “The HOBETRON- A High Power Vacuum Electronic Switch,” IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices, 48(1), January 2001.  (ISSN: 0018-9383)

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*    Available from Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.  Telephone: 800-777-4643.  Website: http://www.springer-ny.com/aip/  

16. NUCLEAR PHYSICS DETECTORS, INSTRUMENTATION AND TECHNIQUES

The Department of Energy (DOE) is interested in supporting projects that may lead to advances in detection systems, instrumentation, and techniques for nuclear physics experiments.  Opportunities exist for developing equipment beyond the present state-of-the-art and outside the usual scope of research and development activities at the nuclear physics national laboratories and university programs.  In addition, a new suite of next-generation detectors will be needed for the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA), the energy upgrade at TJNAF, the proposed underground laboratory, the proposed luminosity upgrade at RHIC, and a possible future electron-ion accelerator.  All grant applications must explicitly show relevance to the nuclear physics program.  Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:

a.  Advances in Detector Technology¾Nuclear physics research has a need for devices to detect, analyze, and track charged particles, and neutral particles such as neutrons, neutrinos, photons, and single atoms.  These devices include: solid-state devices such as highly segmented coaxial and planar germanium detectors, and silicon strip, pixel, and silicon drift detectors; photosensitive devices such as avalanche photodiodes, hybrid photomultiplier devices, single and multiple anode photomultiplier tubes, high-intensity (~1020 g/s) gamma-ray current-readout detectors (e.g. Compton Diodes), photodiodes for operation at liquid helium temperatures with a signal-to-noise ratio comparable to a photomultiplier tube, and other novel photon detectors; detectors utilizing photocathodes for Cherenkov and UV light detection, and the development of new types of large area photo-emissive materials such as solid, liquid, or gas photocathodes; micro-channel plates; gas-filled detectors such as proportional, drift, streamer, Cherenkov, micro-strip, gas electron multiplier detectors, resistive plate chambers, drift electrodes with micromeshes, time projection chambers, and straw drift tube chambers; liquid argon and xenon ionization chambers and other cryogenic detectors; single-atom detectors using laser techniques and electromagnetic traps; particle polarization detectors; electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters, including high energy neutron detectors; and detection systems for detecting the magnetization of polarized nuclei in a magnetic field (e.g., Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUIDS) or cells with paramagnetic atoms that employ large pickup loops to surround the sample).  Grant applications are sought to develop advancements in the technology of the above mentioned detectors.

With respect to solid state tracking devices, such as the segmented germanium detectors and the silicon drift, strip, and pixel detectors, grant applications are sought for: (1) manufacturing techniques, including interconnection technologies for high granularity, high resolution, light-weight, and radiation-hard solid state devices; (2) highly arrayed solid state detectors for neutron detection, with integrated electronics to read-out pulse height; (3) thicker (more than 1.5 mm) segmented silicon charged-particle and x-ray detectors and associated high density, high resolution electronics; and (4) cost-effective production of n-type and p-type silicon drift chambers with active areas greater than 16 cm2.

With respect to position sensitive charged particle and photon tracking devices, grant applications are sought for the development of:  (1) position sensitive, high resolution, germanium detectors capable of determining the position (to within a few millimeters utilizing pulse shape analysis) and energy of  the individual interactions of gamma-rays (with energies up to several MeV), hence allowing for the reconstruction of the energy and path of individual gamma-rays using tracking techniques; (2) hardware and software needed for digital signal processing and gamma-ray tracking – of  particular interest is the development of  efficient and fast algorithms for signal decomposition and improved tracking programs; (3) alternative materials, with comparable resolution to germanium, but with significantly higher efficiency and relatively higher temperature operation (in order to overcome the costly and bulky requirement to cool germanium detectors to liquid nitrogen temperatures); (4) advances in more conventional charged-particle tracking detector systems, such as drift chambers, pad chambers, time expansion chambers, and time proportional chambers (areas of interest include improved gases or gas additives that resist aging, improve detector resolution, decrease flammability, and offer larger/more uniform drift velocity); (5) high-resolution, gas-filled, time-projection chambers employing CCD cameras to perform an optical readout; (6) gamma-ray detectors capable of making accurate measurements of high intensities (>1011 /s) with a precision of 1-2 %, as well as economical gamma-ray beam-profile monitors; and (7) for the RIA, next-generation high spatial resolution focal plane detectors for magnetic spectrographs and recoil separators, for use with heavy ions in the energy range from less than 1 MeV/u to over 100 MeV/u.

With respect to particle identification detectors, grant applications are sought for the development of:  (1) inexpensive, large-area, high-quality Cherenkov materials; (2) inexpensive, position sensitive, large-sized photon detection devices for Cherenkov counters; (3) high resolution time-of-flight detectors; (4) affordable methods for the production of large volumes of xenon and krypton gas (which would contribute to the development of transition radiation detectors and would also have many applications in X-ray detectors); and (5) very high resolution particle detectors or bolometers based on semiconductor materials and cryogenic techniques. Of particular interest are detector technologies capable of measuring energies of alpha particles and protons with less than 5 keV resolution, allowing spectroscopy experiments using light charged particles to be performed in the same way as gamma spectroscopy.

b. Technology for Rare Particle Detection¾ Grant applications are sought for particle detectors and techniques that are capable of measuring very weak, rare event signals in the presence of significant backgrounds.  Such detector technologies and analysis techniques are required in searches for rare events (such as double beta decay) and for applications in extending our knowledge of new nuclear isotopes produced at radioactive beam facilities.  Rare decay and rare phenomenon detectors require large quantities of very clean materials, such as clean shielding materials and clean target materials.  Neutrino detectors need very large quantities of ultra-clean water, for example.  Therefore, grant applications are sought for new technologies to (1) fabricate or purify materials so they have ultra-low levels of radioactive contaminants and (2) measure the contaminant level of the ultra-clean materials.  Lastly, grant applications are sought for new technologies to produce large quantities of separated isotopes, such as kg quantities of Ge-76 and other materials, which are needed for rare particle and rare decay searches in nuclear physics research.

c. Large Band Gap Semiconductors, New Bright Scintillators, and Calorimeters – Grant applications are sought to develop new materials or advancements for photon detection.  Of specific interest are: (1) large band gap semiconductors such as (CdZnTe); (2) bright, fast scintillator materials (LaBr3:Ce, HgI2, AlSb, etc.); (3) plastic scintillators, fibers, and wavelength shifters; (4) cryogenic liquid scintillation gamma ray detectors (LXe); (5) Cherenkov radiator materials with indices of refraction up to 1.10 or greater with good optical transparency; and (6) new and innovative calorimeter concepts, including new materials, higher packing densities, or innovative fiber and absorber packing schemes.  

d. Nuclear Targets¾Grant applications are sought for the development of special targets, which specifically and explicitly address nuclear physics research needs. These special targets include: polarized (with nuclear spins aligned) high-density gas or solid targets; frozen-spin targets; active (scintillating) targets; windowless gas targets and supersonic jet targets for use with very low energy charged particle beams; liquid, gaseous, and solid targets capable of high power dissipation when high intensity, low emittance charged particle beams are used; and high-power targets with fast release capabilities for the production of rare isotopes.  Grant applications are also sought for the production of ultra-thin films for targets, strippers, and detector windows.  In particular, for the RIA, there is a need for stripper foils or films in the thickness range from a few micrograms per cm2 to over 10 milligrams per cm2, for use in the driver linac with very high power densities from uranium beams.  Lastly, grant applications are sought to develop techniques for preparing targets of radioisotopes, with half-lives in the hours range, to be used off-line in both neutron-induced and charged-particle-induced experiments.

References:

1.      Almeida, J., “Review of the Development of Cesium Iodide Photocathodes for Application to Large RICH Detectors,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A:  Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 367(1-3):332-336, December 11, 1995.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)*  

2.      Bauer, C., et al., “Recent Results from Diamond Microstrip Detectors,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 367(1-3):202-206. December 11, 1995.  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

3.      Bellwied, R., et al., “Development of Large Linear Silicon Drift Detectors for the STAR Experiment at RHIC,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 377 (2-3):387-392, August 1, 1996.  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

4.      Bromley, D. A., “Evolution and Use of Nuclear Detectors and Systems,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 162(1-3, pt. I):1-8, June 1-15, 1979.  (ISSN: 0029-554X)*  

5.      Conceptual Design Report for the Solenoidal Tracker at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, June 15, 1992.  (Report No. LBL-PUB-5347) (NTIS Order No. DE92041174)  

6.      Contin, A., et al., “New Results in Optical Fiber Cherenkov Calorimetry,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 367(1-3):271-275, December 11, 1995.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)*  

7.      Deleplanque, M. A., et al., “GRETA [Gamma Ray Energy Tracking Array]: Utilizing New Concepts in Gamma Ray Detection,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 430(2-3):292-310, July 1999.  (ISSN: 0167-0587) (Full text available at:  http://greta.lbl.gov/.  On bottom menu, select “Publications” and then title.)*

8.      Eisen, Y., et al., “CdTe and CdZnTe Gamma Ray Detectors for Medical and Industrial Imaging Systems,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 428(1):158-176, June 1999.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)*  

9.      Grupen, C., Particle Detectors, New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1996.  (ISBN: 0-521-55216-8)  

10.  Hershcovitch, A., “A Plasma Window for Vacuum-Atmosphere Interface and Focusing Lens of Sources for Nonvacuum Ion Material Modification,” from paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Ion Sources, Taormina, Italy, September 7-13, 1997, Review of Scientific Instruments, 69(2):868-873, February 1998.  (ISSN: 0034-6748)  

11.  Knowles, P. E., “A Windowless Frozen Hydrogen Target System,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 368(3):604-610, January 11, 1996.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)*  

12.  PHENIX Conceptual Design Report:  An Experiment to be Performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Brookhaven National Laboratory, January 29, 1993. (Report No. BNL-48922) (NTIS Order No. DE93015759.  See Solicitation Information and Guidelines, section 7.1.)  

13.  “Proceedings of the International Symposium on Solid State Detectors for the 21st Century, Osaka, Japan, December 4-6, 1998,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 436(1-2) October 21, 1999.  (ISSN: 0168-9002)*  

14.  Vetter, K., et al., “Three-Dimensional Position Sensitivity in Two-Dimensionally Segmented HP-Ge Detectors,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 452(1-2):223-238, September 21, 2000 .  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

15.  van Loef, E. V., et al., “Scintillation properties of LaBr3:Ce3+ crystals:  fast, efficient and high-energy-resolution scintillators,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A, 486(1-2):254-258, June 21, 2002 .  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

16.  The SNO Collaboration, “The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Section A, 449(1-2):172-207, July 11, 2000 .  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

17.  Andersen, T. C., et al., “Measurement of Radium Concentration in Water with Mn-coated Beads at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Section A, 501(2-3):399-417, April 1, 2003 .  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

18.  Andersen, T. C., et al., “A Radium Assay Technique Using Hydrous Titanium Oxide Absorbant for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Section A, 501(2-3):386-398, April 1, 2003 .  (ISSN: 0167-0587)*  

19.  Historical Evolution of the Plans for CEBAF @ 12 GeV, U.S. DOE Thomas Jefferson Accelerator Facility, http://www.jlab.org/div_dept/physics_division/GeV.html  

20.  eRHIC: The Electron-Ion-Collider at BNL, U.S. DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/publish/abhay/Home_of_EIC/  

21.  Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA), Oak Ridge Associated Universities, http://www.orau.org/ria/  

22.  RHIC:  Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, U.S. DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory,
http://www.bnl.gov/RHIC/

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*          Full text available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/publications/journal/physics