Ultraenergetic Heavy-Ion Beams in the CERN Accelerator Complex for Radiation Effects Testing

Abstract

Traditional heavy-ion testing for single-event effects is carried out in cyclotron facilities with energies around 10 MeV/n. Despite their capability of providing a broad range of linear energy transfer (LET) values, the main limitations are related to the need of testing in a vacuum and with the sensitive region of the components accessible to the low range ions. In this paper, we explore the use of ultrahigh energy (UHE) (5-150 GeV/n) ions in the CERN accelerator complex for radiation effects on electronics testing. At these energies, we show, both through simulations and experimental data, the significant impact of the ion energy on the ionization track structure and associated volume-restricted LET value, highlighting the possible limitations for radiation hardness assurance for highenergy accelerator applications. In addition, we show that from a nuclear interaction perspective, UHE ions behave similar to protons independently of their significantly larger mass.

Longitudinal Direct Ionization Impact of Heavy Ions on See Testing for Ultrahigh Energies

“…In addition to heavy ions of various energies, 200 MeV protons are widely used, e.g., at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) [9], which represents like RADEF and UCL, an European Space Agency (ESA)-supported facility. Energetic ions are of special interest, since the radiation environment in space, focusing on the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) spectrum, consists of heavy ions with energies mainly extending up to the UHE regime, defined as 5-150 GeV/n in [10]- [12].…”

Heavy Ion Nuclear Reaction Impact on SEE Testing: From Standard to Ultra-high Energies

“…Above roughly 100 MeV/n and up to the maximum energies studied here, the sub-LET threshold SEL cross section is dominated by target fragments and is therefore constant and with similar absolute values for a very broad range of projectile Z-values [25], [30]. For the experimental data obtained in the 40 GeV/n Xe and 150 GeV/n Pb heavy ion beams at CERN [8], [24], no SEL events were able to be observed for this component, due to the lower flux delivered in the SPS-NA, compared to CHARM [7].…”

“…5 and Fig. 6 show the LET distribution of 40 GeV/n 130 Xe and 150 GeV/n 208 Pb fragments produced on a 140 µm silicon target, respectively, which correspond to the experimental conditions in the SPS-NA at CERN [7], [8]. The LET distributions show a separated peak at 6 MeVcm 2 /mg and 15 MeVcm 2 /mg for xenon and lead respectively, which corresponds to the LET of the projectile particle.…”

“…This study is focused on the 200 MeV protons of PSI [13], the 9.3 MeV/n 20 Ne and 40 Ar ions of RADEF [14], as well as the 40 GeV/n 130 Xe and 150 GeV/n 208 Pb UHE ion beams delivered at CERN [7], [8], [26] as mentioned previously in this paper. Neon and argon ions have been chosen, because, with a LET value of 3.7 MeVcm 2 /mg and 10.1 MeVcm 2 /mg respectively, they are comparable to the UHE xenon (3.6 MeVcm 2 /mg) and lead (8.8 MeVcm 2 /mg) ions used in this study.…”

“…In this sense, the UHE heavy ion beams provided by CERN in 2017 (xenon) and 2018 (lead) have offered the unique possibility for carrying out the mentioned tests. Two different test areas, the CERN High Energy Accelerator Mixed-Field (CHARM) [7] facility and the Super Proton Synchrotron North Experimental Area (SPS-NA) [8] xenon and lead ion beams of 6.3 GeV/n and 5.4 GeV/n, respectively, were delivered at CHARM; whereas even higher energies between 19 and 75 GeV/n for xenon and 150 GeV/n for lead were used in the SPS-NA. As will be pointed out later, these very unique beams lead to a production of projectile-like and fission fragments, when interacting with material in the beam line.…”