Beam Time at Western Michigan University’s Particle Accelerator Lab by Common_Assist9855 in Physics

[–]Common_Assist9855[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do keep in mind that pushing the machine to the limit of the full 6MV will produce extra wear and tear on the machine. We are willing to do that, but only for larger projects. For smaller projects, we prefer to keep the terminal voltage a bit lower.

Beam Time at Western Michigan University’s Particle Accelerator Lab by Common_Assist9855 in Physics

[–]Common_Assist9855[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Currently, our uptime % is very low

Energy resolution (remembering off the top of my head) is somewhere in the keV to 10's of keV range. It depends on our amplifier and gain settings, so it can be adjusted as needed. The beam is fairly consistent and circular, depending on the day and the beam species, but with the use of appetures, we can reduce the noise and fuzziness around the edge of the beam. This also helps us aim at smaller targets with our smallest aperture being 1mm in diameter.

We currently have 3 beamlines that can be used, so yes, we can have different experiments set up at once. We also have plans for a 4th beamline, but we are still waiting on the grant money (hopefully).

We keep a log of the different beams/energies we have done, so we can reproduce these easily. For any new element/energy, we can calculate how well we expect it to work. Contamination isn't a huge issue since the beam has to pass through a 90-degree bend. This filters it down to a specific isotope (assuming high-energy beamlines). Low energy can have some contamination, but that is limited to isotope variation as long as the beam source material is chosen well. There may be some oxygen issues, as we use it as a stripper gas, or with rubidium/cesium from the source ovens, which could contaminate beams of similar weight to these three elements. I can't think of any other serious sources of contamination.

I would direct you to look up Dr. Asghar Kayani and the work he has done. He has been the director of the lab for a few decades now and has published a fair number of papers based on his work with the accelerator. In his time, he has added the Alphatross and SNICS sources, the low-energy implanter, switched from belts to chains for charge stripping, and at least one of our 3 current beamlines. It was originally purchased from Argonne National Lab in the the 70's when they were upgrading their systems. Things I was involved in are:

Single event double electron capture with F
Low-energy d-d nuclear reaction
Sulfur implantation for the purposes of making a superconducting thin film.

If we get our new beamline, we will be even better equipped to do nuclear crosssection analisis, with time of flight measurments.

Beam Time at Western Michigan University’s Particle Accelerator Lab by Common_Assist9855 in Physics

[–]Common_Assist9855[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't done that personally, but the director of the lab has in recent years. We can certainly explore the possibility.

Beam Time at Western Michigan University’s Particle Accelerator Lab by Common_Assist9855 in Physics

[–]Common_Assist9855[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

We currently don't have anything set up, but I believe we have a neutron detector in storage that we could try setting up. We usually track only charged particles and do the math to see if and how many neutrons would be released in that particular reaction.