BNL, Upton, New York, USA
The electron beam for the recently constructed Low Energy RHIC electron Cooler (LEReC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory is generated by a high-power fiber laser illuminating a photocathode. The pointing stability of the low-energy electron beam, which is crucial to maintain within acceptable limits given the long beam transport, is highly dependent on the center-of-mass (CoM) stability of the laser spot on the photocathode. For reasons of accessibility during operations, the laser itself is located outside the accelerator tunnel, leading to the need to propagate the laser beam 34 m via three laser tables to the photocathode. The challenges to achieving the required CoM stability of 10 microns on the photocathode thus requires mitigation of vibrations along the transport and of weather- and season-related environmental effects, while preserving accessibility and diagnostic capabilities with proactive design. After successful commissioning of the full transport in 2018/19, we report on our solutions to these design challenges.
LEReC Photocathode DC Gun Beam Test Results - D. Kayran Conference: C18-04-29, p.TUPMF025
Commissioning of Electron Accelerator LEReC for Bunch Beam Cooling - D.Kayran, NAPAC19
BNL, Upton, New York, USA
The Low Energy RHIC electron Cooler (LEReC) was recently constructed and commissioned at BNL. The LEReC is the first electron cooler based on the RF acceleration of electron bunches (previous electron coolers all used DC beams). Bunched electron beams are necessary for cooling hadron beams at high energies. The challenges of such an approach include generation of electron beams suitable for cooling, delivery of electron beams of the required quality to the cooling sections without degradation of beam emittances and energy spread, achieving required small angles between electrons and ions in the cooling sections, precise energy matching between the two beams, high-current operation of the electron accelerator, as well as several physics effects related to bunched beam cooling. Following successful commissioning of the electron accelerator in 2018, the focus of the LEReC project in 2019 was on establishing electron-ion interactions and demonstration of cooling process using electron energy of 1.6MeV (ion energy of 3.85GeV/n), which is the lowest energy of interest. Here we report on the first demonstration of Au ion cooling in RHIC using this new approach.
