Almost invariably, when superconducting accelerator cavities undergo performance tests, they present a dual personality that leaves researchers scratching their heads. When the niobium structure is stood upright (on a test stand), its quality factor mimics its posture – it measures high. But when the same cavity is placed horizontally in a cryomodule, its quality factor […]
Cornell makes progress on Energy Recovery Linac
The idea behind recycling is straightforward: reuse what you have to make more of the same. Applying this concept, however, is seldom simple. In the case of Cornell University’s Energy Recovery Linac (ERL), recycling energy to generate particle beams requires technological advancements that are born from decades of research. If scientists there fulfil their mission, […]
Time to recover
Cornell University is testing a prototype injector for an Energy Recovery Linac
In a linear accelerator, energy conservation is not really on the achievement list. To get up to the required luminosity, accelerator experts have one chance to push the particle beams to their limits, putting much energy into the bunches, correcting, scraping and tweaking them along the way only to smash them into each other and […]