Development of a rest gas ionisation profile monitor for the CERN Proton Synchrotron based on a Timepix3 pixel detector

Abstract

A: A fast non-destructive transverse profile monitor, named PS Beam Gas Ionization monitor (PS-BGI), is under development at CERN for the Proton Synchrotron (PS). This monitor infers the beam profile from the transverse distribution of electrons created by the ionisation of rest gas molecules by the high energy beam particles. The distribution is measured by accelerating the electrons onto an imaging detector based on Timepix3 (TPX3). This detector consists of hybrid pixel detector assemblies mounted on a ceramic carrier board and flexible printed circuit cables which have been developed specifically for operation in an ultra high vacuum environment. K: Beam-line instrumentation (beam position and profile monitors; beam-intensity monitors; bunch length monitors); Instrumentation for particle accelerators and storage rings -high energy (linear accelerators, synchrotrons) 1Corresponding author.

Gamma Factory for CERN initiative - progress report

“…To measure and quantify the longitudinal cooling speed and strength we plan to use the existing SPS wall current monitor [21]. The transverse beam-cooling will be measured with the existing transverse-beam-size monitor based on beam gas ionisation [22].…”

Asic developments for radiation imaging applications: The medipix and timepix family

“…The possibility to combine the readout chips described above with various sensor materials, gas detectors and microchannel plates has led to an explosion of uses not mentioned above. Among those are particle beam monitoring both at the CERN UA9 experiment and more recently for a Beam Gas Ionisation monitor [95] at the CERN PS. There is also an extensive network of Medipix2-and now Timepixbased radiation monitors active in the CERN ATLAS cavern [96,97].…”

Timepix4, a large area pixel detector readout chip which can be tiled on 4 sides providing sub-200 ps timestamp binning

“…In hybrid pixel detectors the detection threshold is typically set well above the noise floor providing noise-hit-free images. This feature, combined with the possibility to detect the energy and arrival time of a particle interaction has led to numerous new applications and enabled the use of triggerless readout for the first time in a high rate high energy physics tracking detector [5] as well as a novel solution for real-time, non-destructive proton beam monitoring at the CERN PS machine [6]. The compact nature of the ASIC/sensor assembly combined with a miniaturised USB readout system [7] have led to, among others, applications in schools, helping students to 'see' particles interacting with matter [8], and to radiation background monitoring and dosimetry in various space applications [9], including at the ISS [10].…”