Measurements of noninterceptive fluorescence profile monitor prototypes using 9 MeV deuterons

Abstract

Two types of noninterceptive optical monitors, based on gas fluorescence, have been designed for use on the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) that is currently under development (a 125 mA, 9 MeV, 175 MHz continuous wave deuteron beam). These diagnostics offer a technique to characterize the transverse beam profile for medium to high current hadron beams, without intercepting the beam core. This paper reports on beam tests using the prototype monitors developed for LIPAc. Tests were carried out at an experimental line of the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores cyclotron, using 9 MeV deuterons with beam currents from 0.4 to 40 μA. In addition, transverse beam profile measurements were performed under high background radiation (e.g. gamma dose rate up to 83 mSv/h). Preliminary cross-checks with different profilers, as well as a systematic scan of beam current and vacuum pressures and tests with different injected gases (nitrogen and xenon) have been performed. In this work, we present a brief description of the experimental setup and the first measurements obtained with these prototype profilers plus a discussion of the first analysis of the background signal in a detector as a function of radiation background.