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Tag archive: FLASH

9 mA revisited

| 24 September 2009 The last two weeks were two of the most important (and intense) weeks for accelerator specialists working on the ILC. After a long period of preparation and a series of first tests, they have just finished a period of successfully running the superconducting linear accelerator FLASH at DESY under ILC-like conditions to demonstrate that a long train of electron bunches with high charge can be produced in and travel through the accelerator – and stay there, too. After the ILC-like run, which ended on Monday after long day and night shifts in the control room, FLASH will receive a major upgrade to improve capabilities and performance for the users of the laser light generated by FLASH. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

FLASH – ILC-like beam tests at DESY

| 23 April 2009 Before we can develop our own test systems that use ILC modules, we are making a series of important tests using the FLASH free-electron laser linac at DESY. Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: , ,

FLASH under ILC charge – almost

| 6 November 2008 More than 1034 times per second per square centimetre — that’s how often electrons and positrons are supposed to collide in the ILC. The project’s accelerator experts have no doubts that it can be done, but they have to demonstrate it, too. An important proof is to run ILC-like beam conditions through a radiofrequency (RF) unit that consists of one klystron and 26 superconducting cavities housed in three cryomodules. Running ILC-like beam conditions means running the cavities at their gradient limits and with 800-microsecond beam pulses with an average current of about nine milliamperes (or mA). The FLASH accelerator at DESY is capable of approaching these ILC-like beam conditions, but they are at the design limits of the machine and are well beyond typical operating conditions. An international team with members from DESY, FNAL, SLAC, KEK, and Argonne have come together for a series of tests that wants to drive an ILC-like beam through FLASH. Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

Cryo crash test

| 12 June 2008 Particle physicists have the reputation that they need to smash things up in order to find out what they are about. Sometimes accelerator physicists get to smash stuff up, too: a group of engineers and technicians recently crash-tested a full cryomodule. They wanted to find out what the 12-metre piece of kit would look like if somebody happened to use the beam pipe as a stepladder, drive a tunnel vehicle into a flange or decide to rip out a vacuum pump. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , , , ,

Testing, Testing

| 1 March 2007 Module 6 has had a bit of a break since we last reported on its progress (NewsLine 11 May 2006 and NewsLine 15 June 2006). It spent the last few months in DESY’s new module test stand in a brand-new building – as sparkling as new buildings in research centres get – and hasn’t been idle. Several cooling cycles and all sorts of tests over several months made sure that its creators knew the exact behaviour of all cavities, cables and couplers, the slow and fast tuners and the magnet. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,

STF – Getting ready for the experience

| 1 March 2007 An important prerequisite for building the ILC is to establish the design and manufacturing of major and vital components, such as cryomodules for the main linacs through realistic operating conditions. The Tesla Test Facility (FLASH) at DESY and Fermilab’s ILC Test Area have been pursued to play critical roles in the European and American regions to this end. KEK also aims to serve as an Asian regional center for the main linac technology, and their STF (Superconducting RF Test Facility) and R&D programs are a manifestation of its endeavour. Many members of STF from KEK are active members in the GDE and in close collaborative relationships with colleagues from DESY, INFN, Orsay, FNAL, JLab, Cornell and SLAC. Major laboratories from China, Korea, and India, have expressed their interests or have already begun interactions with the programme at STF in various forms also. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , , ,

Unprecedented: 13.1 nm for FLASH!

4 May 2006 When Albrecht Wagner, Chairman of the DESY Directorate, opened his mailbox in the morning of 27 April and found an email about FLASH’s 13.1-nm success, he replied immediately: "This is exciting and fantastic news! Congratulations to the entire team!" FLASH, DESY’s pilot facility for the future European XFEL, produced the shortest wavelength yet. This success was celebrated with a party in DESY’s accelerator control room the night before at 22:10 h. Already after three hours, when the superconducting TESLA Test Facility Linac, equipped with five accelerator modules, reached the designated energy of 700 MeV, the electron bunches that traversed the undulator emitted laser flashes with a wavelength of only 13.1 nm (there’s a plot from the logbook for those who don’t believe it). This is an important step on the way to reach the design value of 6 nm planned for the FLASH facility. With the sixth module which will be installed in the second quarter of 2007, it will be possible to accelerate the electron bunches to 1 GeV and to generate wavelengths of 6 nm. Category: Feature | Tagged: , ,