45. 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 700-1500 MHz structures have Q₀>8 x 10⁹ at 2 K and so that overall fabrication costs are reduced relative to using sheet niobium.

Grant applications also are sought for the design, computer-modeling, and hardware development of 5 kW and 13 kW cw power sources at 1497 MHz and 1 MW cw rf power sources at 704 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 for 1497 MHz 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] or Dr. Ilan Ben-Zvi at Brookhaven National Laboratory (ILAN@BNL.GOV) 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) ~28 MHz cw polarized sources delivering beams of ~500 mA with ~80% polarization; (8) novel high quantum efficiency, long life photocathode materials, such as chalcopyrites, for brightness electron sources with polarizations >90%; (9) 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; (10) 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; (11) 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 (12) a high average power (~100 W) green laser light source, with a rf-pulse repetition rate in the range of 0.5 to 3 GHz for synchronous photoinjection of GaAs photoemission guns.

Grant applications also are 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 (for example, filters based on high T_c 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; (7) devices that can perform direct 12-14 bit digitization of signals at 0.5-2 GHz and have bandwidths of 100+ kHz; (8) systems for predicting insipient failure of accelerator components through the monitoring/cataloging/scanning of real-time or logged signals; (9) devices/systems that measure the emittance of intense (>100kW) cw ion beams, such as those expected at the Rare Isotope Accelerator facility; and (10) beam halo monitor systems for ion beams.

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., Linac96: 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)

18. Ben-Zvi, Ilan, et al., ”R&D towards Cooling of the RHIC Collider”, Proceedings of the 2003 Particle Accelerator Conference: PAC 2003, Portland, OR, May 12-16, 2003. (Full text of paper available at: http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p03/PAPERS/MOPA005.PDF )

19. Proceedings of the 2003 RIA R&D Workshop, Bethesda, MD, August 26-28, 2003. (Summary of Workshop available at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/henp/np/program/riard.htm) (40-page formal report of Workshop available at: http://www.pubs.bnl.gov/documents/25894.pdf)

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

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