In service of accelerator stewardship: The BNL ATF and its upgrade

Abstract

Abstract. The Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has served as a user facility for accelerator science for over a quarter of a century. Since its inception, the ATF in fact had undertaken the mission of accelerator stewardship of the Office of High Energy Physics (OHEP), even before the concept was fully formulated. In bringing advanced accelerator-science and technology to individual users, small groups of researchers, and large collaborations, the ATF offers a unique combination of a high-brightness 80-MeV electron beam synchronized to a 2-TW picosecond CO 2 laser. The ATF now the flagship of the Accelerator Stewardship program of the OHEP, and thus will provide opportunities to small businesses to develop accelerator-based products, running the full gamut from the laboratory to the applications. At this juncture, the ATF has embarked upon a transformational upgrade of its capabilities. We describe our plan for greatly expanding the ATF's floor space, and the number of independent experiment halls, for upgrading the electron beam's energy in stages to 500-MeV, and the CO 2 laser's peak power to 100 TW. This upgrade will afford a new, vast space for the laser and electron beam for conducting new research in accelerator science and technology that is at the forefront advanced accelerators and radiation sources, and to support the most innovative ideas in these fields. We will discuss emerging opportunities for scientific breakthroughs that include the following: Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA), extending the researches already pursued at the ATF; Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) wherein the longer laser wavelengths will engender a proportional increase in the beam's charge, while our linac will assure, for the first-time, the opportunity for undertaking detailed studies of seeding and staging of the LWFA. The laser will extend proton acceleration to the 100-200 MeV level, as is demanded for certain medical applications.

Future compact light sources driven by CO2 lasers

“…For the yet unexplored a 0 1 regime, numerous harmonics will be generated, increasing in intensity up to the critical harmonic number , [16] and thus yielding a Compton continuum. As Fig.3 shows, with a 0 =10 achievable with the 100-TW CO 2 laser [7], the harmonic continuum will be extended to 6 MeV gamma rays, reaching 750.…”

“…[7]. The expected fast-scaling of the CS's peak brightness with , ~ (or ~ for the emittance-dominated condition, > , when 1.5 × 10 ( ) ) makes its gamma-ray regime not only unique in terms of the spectral access, but also highly competitive in the delivered peak brightness to the 3 rd -generation SLSs.…”

“…is the laser intensity [7]. Having this laser opens up the possibility of studying a LWFA bubble accelerator at =10 m. The expected number of accelerated electrons in the monoenergetic peak is e .…”

The Linac Extension Area at the Advanced Photon Source

“…The Linac Extension Area (LEA) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) has been developed as a test area for accelerator components and concepts. Within the United States and more broadly worldwide, few test areas are available with relativistic energy electron beams [1][2][3]. There are especially few test beams of an energy 200-500 MeV.…”