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Mostacci, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Mostacci, A..

Space Charge Forces analytical model for emittance compensation

Space charge forces represent main induced effects in an RF-injector that degrade the beam quality. In this scenario the laser distribution sent on the photocathode acquires an important role in the emittance compensation process, as the slice analysis shows. Starting from the preliminary studies performed on [1], a novel semi-analytical model of space charge forces is proposed in detail for bunch with arbitrary charge distribution to derive expressions of self-induced forces. The performance of the fields at low energy regime (as the field has not expired RF forces) is under present analysis, we can investigate use of this model in low charge regime. Further, the model has been bench-marked with the behavior of the distributions present in the literature and studied for new ones. It has also been applied for the study of the optimization of a C-band hybrid photoinjector now being commissioned, thus explaining the factor two reduction of the emittance observed at the exit of the gun by changing the initial distribution at the cathode.

Carillo, M.↗

Nano-machining, surface analysis and emittance measurements of a copper photocathode at SPARC_LAB

R&D activity on Cu photocathodes is under development at the SPARC_LAB test facility to fully characterize each stage of the photocathode “life” and to have a complete overview of the photoemission properties in high brightness photo-injectors. The nano(n)-machining process presented here consists in diamond milling, and blowing with dry nitrogen. This procedure reduces the roughness of the cathode surface and prevents surface contamination introduced by other techniques, such as polishing with diamond paste or the machining with oil. Both high roughness and surface contamination cause an increase of intrinsic emittance and consequently a reduction of the overall electron beam brightness. To quantify these effects, we have characterized the photocathode surface in terms of roughness measurement, and morphology and chemical composition analysis by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) techniques. The effects of n-machining on the electron beam quality have been also investigated through emittance measurements before and after the surface processing technique. Finally, we present preliminary emittance studies of yttrium thin film on Cu photocathodes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Progress of the development of the ELI-NP GBS high level applications

The Gamma Beam System (GBS) is a high brightness LINAC to be installed in Magurele (Bucharest) at the new ELINP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) laboratory. The accelerated electrons, with energies ranging from 280 to 720 MeV, will collide with a high power laser to produce tunable high energy photons (0.2-20MeV ) with high intensity (10 13 photons/s), high brilliance and spectral purity (0.1%BW), through the Compton backscattering process. This light source will be open to users for nuclear photonics and nuclear physics advanced experiments. Tested high level applications will play an important role in commissioning and operation. In this paper we report the progress and status of the development of dedicated high level applications. We also present the results of the test on the FERMI LINAC of the electron trajectory control method based on Dispersion Free Steering.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Parametric study of transport beam lines for electron beams accelerated by laser-plasma interaction

In the last decade, laser-plasma acceleration of high-energy electrons has attracted strong attention in different fields. Electrons with maximum energies in the GeV range can be laser-accelerated within a few cm using multi-hundreds terawatt (TW) lasers, yielding to very high beam currents at the source (electron bunches with up to tens-hundreds of pC in a few fs). While initially the challenge was to increase the maximum achievable electron energy, today strong effort is put in the control and usability of these laser-generated beams that still lack of some features in order to be used for applications where currently conventional, radio-frequency (RF) based, electron beam lines represent the most common and efficient solution. Several improvements have been suggested for this purpose, some of them acting directly on the plasma source, some using beam shaping tools located downstream. Concerning the latter, several studies have suggested the use of conventional accelerator magnetic devices (such as quadrupoles and solenoids) as an easy implementable solution when the laser-plasma accelerated beam requires optimization. In this paper, we report on a parametric study related to the transport of electron beams accelerated by laser-plasma interaction, using conventional accelerator elements and tools. We focus on both, high energy electron beams in the GeV range, as produced on petawatt (PW) class laser systems, and on lower energy electron beams in the hundreds of MeV range, as nowadays routinely obtained on commercially available multi-hundred TW laser systems. For both scenarios, our study allows understanding what are the crucial parameters that enable laser-plasma accelerators to compete with conventional ones and allow for a beam transport. We show that suitable working points require a tradeoff-combination between low beam divergence and narrow energy spread.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Novel schemes for the optimization of the SPARC narrow band THz source

A pulsed, tunable, narrow band radiation source with frequency in the THz region can be obtained collecting the coherent transition radiation produced by a train of ultra-short electron bunches having picosecond scale inter-distance. In this paper, we review the techniques feasible at the SPARC-LAB test facility to produce and manipulate the requested train of electron bunches and we examine the dynamics of their acceleration and compression. In addition, we show how the performances of the train compression and the radiation intensity and bandwidth can be significantly improved through the insertion of a fourth order harmonic cavity, working in the X-band and acting as a longitudinal phase space linearizer.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The FLUKA Code: An Overview

FLUKA is a multipurpose Monte Carlo code which can transport a variety of particles over a wide energy range in complex geometries. The code is a joint project of INFN and CERN: part of its development is also supported by the University of Houston and NASA. FLUKA is successfully applied in several fields, including but not only, particle physics, cosmic ray physics, dosimetry, radioprotection, hadron therapy, space radiation, accelerator design and neutronics. The code is the standard tool used at CERN for dosimetry, radioprotection and beam-machine interaction studies. Here we give a glimpse into the code physics models with a particular emphasis to the hadronic and nuclear sector.

Ballarini, F.↗

Update On the Status of the FLUKA Monte Carlo Transport Code*

The FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code is a well-known simulation tool in High Energy Physics. FLUKA is a dynamic tool in the sense that it is being continually updated and improved by the authors. We review the progress achieved since the last CHEP Conference on the physics models, some technical improvements to the code and some recent applications. From the point of view of the physics, improvements have been made with the extension of PEANUT to higher energies for p, n, pi, pbar/nbar and for nbars down to the lowest energies, the addition of the online capability to evolve radioactive products and get subsequent dose rates, upgrading of the treatment of EM interactions with the elimination of the need to separately prepare preprocessed files. A new coherent photon scattering model, an updated treatment of the photo-electric effect, an improved pair production model, new photon cross sections from the LLNL Cullen database have been implemented. In the field of nucleus-- nucleus interactions the electromagnetic dissociation of heavy ions has been added along with the extension of the interaction models for some nuclide pairs to energies below 100 MeV/A using the BME approach, as well as the development of an improved QMD model for intermediate energies. Both DPMJET 2.53 and 3 remain available along with rQMD 2.4 for heavy ion interactions above 100 MeV/A. Technical improvements include the ability to use parentheses in setting up the combinatorial geometry, the introduction of pre-processor directives in the input stream. a new random number generator with full 64 bit randomness, new routines for mathematical special functions (adapted from SLATEC). Finally, work is progressing on the deployment of a user-friendly GUI input interface as well as a CAD-like geometry creation and visualization tool. On the application front, FLUKA has been used to extensively evaluate the potential space radiation effects on astronauts for future deep space missions, the activation dose for beam target areas, dose calculations for radiation therapy as well as being adapted for use in the simulation of events in the ALICE detector at the LHC.

Ferrari, A.↗