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Stratakis, D

Publications and source records attributed to Stratakis, D.

11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

An Engineering Prototype of a Late Stage Ionization Cooling Cell for a Muon Collider

Achieving the low emittances required for a muon collider requires ionization cooling. Much of that cooling occurs in compact cooling cells where superconducting coils and conventional RF cavities are closely interleaved. The real challenges for these cooling cells reside in their engineering challenges: high field solenoids, RF cavities, and absorbers, often designed near technological limits, placed in close proximity to each other. We thus propose to build a prototype ionization cooling cell to demonstrate the capability of constructing an ionization cooling channel reaching the lowest emittances and to provide engineering input for the design of such beamlines.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Progress on a Be Cavity Design

Previous RF experiments with normal-conducting cavities have demonstrated that there is a significant degradation in maximum gradient when the cavity is subjected to a strong axial magnetic field. We have developed a model suggesting that a cavity with beryllium walls may perform better than copper cavities. In this paper we outline the issues that led us to propose fabricating a Be-wall cavity. We also discuss a concept for fabricating such a cavity and mention some of the manufacturing issues we expect to face.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Enhancement of accelerating field of microwave cavities by magnetic insulation

Limitations on the maximum achievable accelerating gradient of microwave cavities can strongly influence the performance, length, and cost of particle accelerators. Gradient limitations are widely believed to be initiated by electron emission from the cavity surfaces. Here, we show that the deleterious effects of field emission are effectively suppressed by applying a tangential magnetic field to the cavity walls. With the aid of numerical simulations we compute the field strength required to insulate an 805 MHz cavity and estimate the cavity's tolerances to typical experimental errors such as magnet misalignments and positioning errors. Then, we review an experimental program, currently under progress, to further study the concept. Finally, we report on two specific examples that illustrate the feasibility of magnetic insulation into prospective particle accelerator applications.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

A Compact and High Performance Muon Capture Channel for Muon Accelerators

It is widely believed that a neutrino factory would deliver unparallel performance in studying neutrino mixing and would provide tremendous sensitivity to new physics in the neutrino sector. Here we will describe and simulate the front-end of the neutrino factory system, which plays critical role in determining the number of muons that can be accepted by the downstream accelerators. In this system, a proton bunch on a target creates secondaries that drift into a capture transport channel. A sequence of rf cavities forms the resulting muon beams into strings of bunches of differing energies, aligns the bunches to nearly equal central energies, and initiates ionization cooling. For this, the muon beams are transported through sections containing high-gradient cavities and strong focusing solenoids. In this paper we present results of optimization and variation studies toward obtaining the maximum number of muons for a neutrino factory by using a compact transport channel. It has been suggested computationally and experimentally that the maximum achievable gradient is enhanced by introducing an external magnetic field at right angles to the rf electric field since it suppresses field-emission processes. Here, we have discussed a possible scheme for extending the concept of magnetic insulation to capture, transport, and cool muons in a neutrino factory. We incorporated this idea into a new lattice design where the rf cavities are shaped so that their walls were tangential to the magnetic-field lines. We showed that, with magnetic insulation, the field-emitted electrons impact the cavity surface with energies four orders-of-magnitude less than in conventional pillbox cavities; consequently, damage from field-emission is suppressed significantly. While demanding in terms of power requirements, this neutrino factory lattice showed satisfactory performance in both cooling and collecting the accepted muons within the requirements for the IDSNF. Optimizations were also made to reduce heating on the absorber windows minimizing losses in the accepted muon fluxes. The next step for verifying these ideas should be an experimental demonstration of a single muon accelerator magnetically-insulated rf cavity. A successful demonstration will provide us with a new versatile tool for a future muon accelerator.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Enhancement of RF Breakdown Threshold of Microwave Cavities by Magnetic Insulation

Limitations on the maximum achievable accelerating gradient of microwave cavities can influence the performance, length, and cost of particle accelerators. Gradient limitations are believed to be initiated by electron emission from the cavity surfaces. Here, we show that field emission is effectively suppressed by applying a tangential magnetic field to the cavity walls, so higher gradients can be achieved. Numerical simulations indicate that the magnetic field prevents electrons leaving these surfaces and subsequently picking up energy from the electric field. Our results agree with current experimental data. Two specific examples illustrate the implementation of magnetic insulation into prospective particle accelerator applications. The ultimate goal of several research efforts is to integrate high-gradient radio-frequency (rf) structures into next generation particle accelerators. For instance, the Muon Accelerator Program is looking at developing low-frequency cavities for muon cooling, and the International Linear Collider is optimizing the performance of 1.3 GHz rf structures aimed at designing a 1 TeV electron-positron collider. Furthermore, the High Gradient RF Collaboration is examining high frequency (f > 10 GHz) structures intended for an electron-positron collider operating at energies in the TeV range. In all this research, the accelerating gradient will be one of the crucial parameters affecting their design, construction, and cost. Limitations from rf breakdown strongly influence the development of accelerators since it limits the machine's maximum gradient. The emission of electrons from the cavity surfaces seemingly is a necessary stage in the breakdown process, acting either as a direct cause of breakdown or as precursor for other secondary effects. Typically, electron currents arise from sharp edges or cracks on the cavities surfaces, where the strength of the electric field is strongly enhanced compared to that of the nominal field when the surfaces of the cavity are perfect planes. Subsequently, a stream of emitted electrons can be accelerated by the rf electric field toward the opposing cavity walls. Upon impact, they heat a localized region, resulting in the eventual breakdown by a variety of secondary mechanisms. Therefore, it is advantageous to develop techniques that could suppress field emission within rf cavities. It has been proposed that high voltages up to about a gigavolt range may be sustained in voltage transformers, by adopting the principle of magnetic insulation in ultrahigh vacuum. The basic idea is to suppress field emission by applying a suitably directed magnetic field of sufficient strength to force the electrons orbits back on to the rf emitting surface. More recently, it was shown that magnetic insulation could be very effective in suppressing field emission and multipacting in rectangular coupler waveguides. Hence, the question arises whether the same principle is applicable to rf accelerating structures. In this Letter, we shall consider application of the concept to low-frequency (201-805 MHz) muon accelerator cavities.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Numerical study of a magnetically insulated front-end channel for a neutrino factory

A neutrino factory, which can deliver an intense flux of {approx}10{sup 21} neutrinos per year from a multi-GeV stored muon beam, is seemingly the ideal tool for studying neutrino oscillations and CP violations for leptons. The front end of this facility plays a critical role in determining the number of muons that can be accepted by the downstream accelerators. Delivering peak performance requires transporting the muon beams through long sections of a beam channel containing high-gradient rf cavities and strong focusing solenoids. Here, we propose a novel scheme to improve the performance of the cavities, thereby increasing the number of muons within the acceptance of the accelerator chain. The key element of our new scheme is to apply a tangential magnetic field to the rf surfaces, thus forcing any field-emitted electrons to return to the surface before gaining enough energy to damage the cavity. We incorporate this idea into a new lattice design for a neutrino factory, and detail its performance numerically. Although our proposed front-end channel requires more rf power than conventional pillbox designs, it provides enough beam cooling and muon production to be a feasible option for a neutrino factory.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2010

Progress on a Be Cavity Design

Previous RF experiments with normal-conducting cavities have demonstrated that there is a significant degradation in maximum gradient when the cavity is subjected to a strong axial magnetic field. We have developed a model suggesting that a cavity with beryllium walls may perform better than copper cavities. In this paper we outline the issues that led us to propose fabricating a Be-wall cavity. We also discuss a concept for fabricating such a cavity and mention some of the manufacturing issues we expect to face.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2010

Effect of External Magnetic Fields on the Operation of RF Cavities

Recent experiments have shown severe surface damage and a reduction of the maximum accelerating gradient for an rf cavity that is operating under external magnetic fields. This implies that serious problems may occur in lattices where rf cavities and external magnetic fields coexist, such as those of the proposed neutrino factory and muon collider. Although existing data suggest that this magnetic field dependent breakdown is associated with the emission of electrons from locally enhanced field regions on the cavity surface, the mechanism that drives this effect is not yet well understood. Here, we show that such field emitted electrons are accelerated by the cavity and focused by the magnetic field to the other side of the cavity where they heat its surface. We show that if the magnetic field is strong, significant surface deformation can occur that eventually could limit the accelerating gradient of the cavity. Results of our model are compared to the existing experimental data from an 805 MHz cavity. The geometry of the pillbox cavity in our case is more complicated, and the analysis depends on the electron energies, focused dimensions, and angle of impact, but damage may reasonably be expected with similar cyclical heating above 40 C. However, it is not yet known what the mechanism is for such surface damage to cause a cavity to breakdown. One possibility is that if electrons are focused on a location with a high surface gradient, then the local damage will generate new asperities with higher FN enhancement factors, thus initiating breakdown. While our preliminary analysis offers some quantification on the effects of the magnetic fields on the cavity's operation, other theoretical issues were not addressed. For instance, emission from secondary electrons was disregarded, the asperity was placed on axis, the magnetic field was assumed as uniform, the thermal-diffusion calculation ignored the shape of the rise time, and adopted an approximate calculation. On the theoretical level, it will be interesting to pursue additional simulations exploring these effects in detail. Experimentally, there is a clear need for more well-designed experiments to study, systematically, the effect of external fields on the cavity's operation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗