The latest generation of IPMs installed in the Fermilab Main Injector and Recycler incorporate a 1 kG permanent magnet, a newly designed high-gain, rad-tolerant preamp, and a control grid to moderate the charge that is allowed to arrive on the anode pick-up strips. The control grid is intended to select a single Booster batch measurement per turn. Initially it is being used to allow for a faster turn-on of a single, high-intensity cycle in either machine. The expectation is that this will extend the Micro Channel Plate lifetime, which is the high-cost consumable in the measurement system. We discuss the new design and data acquired with this system.
Ionization profile monitors (IPMs) are used in the Fermilab Main Injector (MI) to monitor injection lattice matching by measuring turn-by-turn sigmas at injection and to measure transverse emittance of the beam during the acceleration cycle. The IPMs provide a periodic, non-destructive means of performing turn-by-turn emittance measurements where other techniques are not applicable. As Fermilab is refocusing its attention on the intensity frontier, non-intercepting diagnostics such as IPMs are expected to become even more important. This paper gives an overview of the operational use of IPMs f…
The intensity of charged particle beams at Fermilab must be kept within pre-determined safety and operational envelopes in part by assuring all beam within a few percent has been transported from any source to destination. Beam intensity monitors with toroidial pickups provide such beam intensity measurements in the transport lines between accelerators at FNAL. During Run II, much effort was made to continually improve the resolution and accuracy of the system.
The beam position monitor (BPM) system for Fermilab Switchyard (SY) provides the position, intensity and integrated intensity of the 53.10348 MHz RF bunched resonant extracted beam from the Main Injector over 4 seconds of spill. The total beam intensity varies from 1x10^11 to 1x10^13 protons. The spill is measured by stripline beam postion monitors and resonant circuit. The BPMs have an external resonant circuit tuned to 53.10348 MHz. The corresponding voltage signal out of the BPM has been estimated to be between -110 dBm and -80 dBm.
The measurement of the longitudinal behavior of the accelerated particle beams at Fermilab is crucial to the optimization and control of the beam and the maximizing of the integrated luminosity for the particle physics experiments. Longitudinal measurements in the Tevatron and Main Injector synchrotrons are based on the analysis of signals from resistive wall current monitors. This article describes the signal processing performed by a 2 GHz-bandwidth oscilloscope together with a computer running a LabVIEW program which calculates the longitudinal beam parameters.
A VME-based data acquisition system for beam-loss monitors has been developed and is in use in the Tevatron and Main Injector accelerators at the Fermilab complex. The need for enhanced beam-loss protection when the Tevatron is operating in collider-mode was the main driving force for the new design. Prior to the implementation of the present system, the beam-loss monitor system was disabled during collider operation and protection of the Tevatron magnets relied on the quench protection system. The new Beam-Loss Monitor system allows appropriate abort logic and thresholds to be set over the fu…
The readout electronics for the resonant beam position monitors (BPMs) in the Fermilab Switchyard (SY) have been upgraded, utilizing a low noise amplifier transition board and Fermilab designed digitizer boards. The stripline BPMs are estimated to have an average signal output of between -110 dBm and -80 dBm, with an estimated peak output of -70 dBm. The external resonant circuit is tuned to the SY machine frequency of 53.10348 MHz. Both the digitizer and transition boards have variable gain in order to accommodate the large dynamic range and irregularity of the resonant extraction spill. Thes…
We present recent beam data from a new design of a profile monitor for proton beams at Fermilab. The monitors, consisting of grids of segmented Ti foils 5micrometers thick, are secondary-electron emission monitors (SEM's). We review data on the device's precision on beam centroid position, beam width, and on beam loss associated with the SEM material placed in the beam.
The Fermilab Booster is a fast ramping (15Hz) synchrotron which accelerates protons from 400MeV to 8GeV. During commissioning of a transverse digital damper system, it was shown that the damper could provide a measurement of the machine tune throughout the cycle by exciting just 1 of the 84 bunches with minimal impact on the machine operation. The algorithms used to make the measurement have been incorporated into the damper FPGA firmware allowing for real-time tune monitoring of all Booster cycles.
The first cryomodule for the beam test facility at the Fermilab New-Muon-Lab building is currently under RF commissioning. Among other diagnostics systems, the transverse position of the helium gas return pipe with the connected 1.3 GHz SRF accelerating cavities is measured along the ~15 m long module using a stretched-wire position monitoring system. An overview of the wire position monitor system technology is given, along with preliminary results taken at the initial module cool down, and during further testing. As the measurement system offers a high resolution, we also discuss options for…
The Fast Bunch Integrator is a bunch intensity monitor designed around the measurements made from Resistive Wall Current Monitors. During the Run II period these were used in both Tevatron and Main Injector for single and multiple bunch intensity measurements. This paper presents an overview of the design and use of these systems during this period.
Synchrotron radiation has been used for many years as a beam diagnostic at electron accelerators. It is not normally associated with proton accelerators as the intensity of the radiation is too weak to make detection practical. However, if one utilizes the radiation originating near the edge of a bending magnet, or from a short magnet, the rapidly changing magnetic field serves to enhance the wavelengths shorter than the cutoff wavelength, which for more recent high energy proton accelerators such as Fermilab's Tevatron, tends to be visible light. This paper discusses the implementation at the…
Measurements of transverse profiles using Ionization Profile Monitors (IPMs) for high brightness beams are affected by the electromagnetic field of the beam. This interaction may cause a distortion of the measured profile shape despite strong external magnetic field applied to impose limits on the transverse movement of electrons. The mechanisms leading to this distortion are discussed in detail. The distortion itself is described by means of analytic calculations for simplified beam distributions and a full simulation model for realistic distributions. Simple relation for minimum magnetic fie…
The MTA beam line has been specifically designed to facilitate measurements of the Fermilab Linac beam emittance and properties utilizing a long, 10m, element-free straight. Linac beam is extracted downstream of the 400-MeV electrostatic chopper located in the Booster injection line. This chopper cannot be utilized for MTA beam, and therefore the entire Linac beam pulse is directed into the MTA beamline. Pulse length manipulation is provided by the 750-keV electrostatic chopper at the upstream end of the Linac and, using this device, beam can be delivered from 8 μsec up to the full 50 μsec Lin…
We have developed a computer program interfaced with the ACNET environment of Fermilab accelerators to measure energy spread of the proton beam from the LINAC at an injection into the Booster. It uses a digitizing oscilloscope and provides users an ability to configure the scope settings for optimal data acquisition from a resistive wall current monitor. When the program is launched, a) a ${\it one\ shot\ timeline}$ is generated to initiate beam injection into the Booster, b) a gap of about 40 ns is produced in the injected beam using a set of fast kickers, c) collects line charge distribution…
The optimization of an accelerator relies on the ability to monitor the behavior of the beam in an intelligent and timely fashion. The use of processor-driven front-ends allowed for the deployment of smart systems in the field for improved data collection and analysis during Run II. This paper describes the implementation of the two main systems used: National Instruments LabVIEW running on PCs, and WindRiver's VxWorks real-time operating system running in a VME crate processor.
The Main Injector (MI) was commissioned using data acquisition systems developed for the Fermilab Main Ring in the 1980s. New VME-based instrumentation was commissioned in 2006 for beam loss monitors (BLM)[2], which provided a more systematic study of the machine and improved displays of routine operation. However, current projects are demanding more data and at a faster rate from this aging hardware. One such project, Real-time Edge AI for Distributed Systems (READS), requires the high-frequency, low-latency collection of synchronized BLM readings from around the approximately two-mile accele…
Crystal channeling technology has offered various opportunities in accelerator community with a viability of ultrahigh gradient (TV/m) acceleration for future HEP collider in Energy Frontier. The major challenge of the channeling acceleration is that ultimate acceleration gradients might require high power driver at hard x-ray regime (~ 40 keV), exceeding those conceivable for x-rays as of today, though x-ray lasers can efficiently excite solid plasma and accelerate particles inside a crystal channel. Moreover, only disposable crystal accelerators are possible at such high externally excited f…
The potentially realizable beam power at the Fermilab long-baseline neutrino program has motivated a reinvigorated design and optimization effort for a rapid-cycling synchrotron (RCS) intensity upgrade of the Fermilab proton complex. We examine areas of technological development with the potential for high-impact on the Fermilab RCS design - low-loss slip-stacking, advanced neutrino-target R\&D, laser-stripping H$^{-}$ injection, fast-ramping super-ferric magnets, nonlinear integrable optics, electron lens devices, and next-generation halo monitors. A brief overview is given on the Fermilab Ac…
Ionization profile monitors (IPMs) are widely used in particle accelerators for fast evaluation of parameters of high energy beams. Due to the space-charge effects and several other physical reasons, as well as due to instrumental effects, the measured IPM profiles differ from the those of the beams. Empirical mathematical models are commonly used for reconstruction of the profiles. Here we present proper correction algorithm based on the space-charge dynamics of the secondaries in IPMs. We also demonstrate efficiency of the beam size reconstruction from experimentally measured profiles and di…
We propose a model-independent quantity, $L/G$, to characterize non-Gaussian tails in beam profiles observed with the Fermilab Booster Ion Profile Monitor. This quantity can be considered a measure of beam halo in the Booster. We use beam dynamics and detector simulations to demonstrate that $L/G$ is superior to kurtosis as an experimental measurement of beam halo when realistic beam shapes, detector effects and uncertainties are taken into account. We include the rationale and method of calculation for $L/G$ in addition to results of the experimental studies in the Booster where we show that …
We have measured the total energy spread (99 persent energy spread) of the Booster beam at its injection energy of 400 MeV by three different methods - 1) creating a notch of about 40 nsec wide in the beam immediately after multiple turn injection and measuring the slippage time required for high and low momentum particles for a grazing touch in line-charge distribution, 2) injecting partial turn beam and letting it to debunch, and 3) comparing the beam profile monitor data with predictions from MAD simulations for the 400 MeV injection beam line. The measurements are repeated under varieties …
Many modern and most future accelerators rely on precise configuration of lattice and trajectory. The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) at Fermilab that is coming to final stages of construction will be used to test advanced approaches of control over particles dynamics. Various experiments planned at IOTA require high flexibility of lattice configuration as well as high precision of lattice and closed orbit control. Dense element placement does not allow to have ideal configuration of diagnostics and correctors for all planned experiments. To overcome this limitations advanced method …
A system for bunch-by-bunch detection of transverse proton and antiproton coherent oscillations in the Tevatron is described. It is based on the signal from a single beam-position monitor located in a region of the ring with large amplitude functions. The signal is digitized over a large number of turns and Fourier-analyzed offline with a dedicated algorithm. To enhance the signal, band-limited noise is applied to the beam for about 1 s. This excitation does not adversely affect the circulating beams even at high luminosities. The device has a response time of a few seconds, a frequency resolu…
A prototype Secondary-electron Emission Monitor (SEM) was installed in the 8 GeV proton transport line for the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab. The SEM is a segmented grid made with 5 um Ti foils, intended for use in the 120 GeV NuMI beam at Fermilab. Similar to previous workers, we found that the full collection of the secondary electron signal requires a bias voltage to draw the ejected electrons cleanly off the foils, and this effect is more pronounced at larger beam intensity. The beam centroid and width resolutions of the SEM were measured at beam widths of 3, 7, and 8 mm, and compared t…
As the main $H^{-}$ ion source for the accelerator complex, magnetron ion sources have been used at Fermilab since the 1970s. At the offline test stand, new R&D is carried out to develop and upgrade the present magnetron-type sources of $H^{-}$ ions of up to 80 mA and 35 keV beam energy in the context of the Proton Improvement Plan. The aim of this plan is to provide high-power proton beams for the experiments at FNAL. In order to reduce the amount of tuning and monitoring of these ion sources, a new electronic system consisting of a current-regulated arc discharge modulator allow the ion sour…
Muon collider is a considerable candidate of the next-generation high-energy lepton collider machine. Operating an RF cavity in a multi-Tesla magnet is a critical requirement in a muon accelerator and a cooling channel. However, the maximum RF gradient in a vacuum RF cavity is strongly limited by an external magnetic field. Dense hydrogen gas filled RF cavity has been proposed since it is functional of generating a high RF accelerating gradient in a strong magnetic field and making an ionization cooling process at the same time. A critical issue of the cavity is a beam- induced plasma that con…