The Nanosecond bunching system at KIGAM Tandem Accelerator

G. D. Kim, W. Hong, H. W. Choi, H. J. Woo, and J. K. Kim,

Korea Institute of Geoscience, and Mineral Resources,
Taejon 305-350, Korea

J. H. Chang
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Taejon 305-600, Korea

Abstract
KIGAM has developed a nanosecond bunching system to obtain the reliable neutron capture cross
section data. The pulsed beam is obtained by a set of deflector electrode and slit. Also the bunched beam
is obtained through the three stage electrodes, to which double bunching principle applies. The
specification of neutron bunching beam is designed to be that the repetition rate is 8 MHz, the width is
about 2 ns, and duty factor is about 20 %.

I. Introduction
The nuclear data project as one of the nation-wide nuclear R&D programs was launched by KAERI in
1999, Its main goals are to establish a nuclear data system, to construct the infrastructure for nuclear data
production and evaluation, and to develop a highly reliable nuclear data system. KIGAM is interested in
neutron cross section data of neutron energies range from 1 MeV to 2 MeV, which is corresponded with
field of fusion reaction. So we have measured neutron capture cross sections of a few materials, such as
65
Cu, and 186W, by MeV continuous neutron beam from 3T(p,n)3He reaction and a neutron activation
method.
We have large errors to other`s experimental data.[1,2] So we plan to measure the prompt gamma ray
following neutron capture reaction to obtain the accurate nuclear data. We need pulsed neutron beams to
remove the background gamma rays and the beam associated background gamma rays. A neutron pulsing
and bunching system of KIGAM 1.7 MV Tandem accelerator has been designed and is now under
fabrication.
The pulsed beam is obtained by a set of deflector electrode and slit. Then bunched beam is obtained
through the three stage electrodes, to which the double bunching principle applies. The specification of
neutron bunching beam is designed to be that the repetition rate is 8 MHz, the width is about 2 ns, and
duty factor is about 20 %.
A program was made to show the bunching profile and compression ratio of proton beam. Applied
alternative voltage, size and intervals of electrodes, and slit size were determined by a simulation by the
home-made program and a calculation by superfish code.
A 45o bending magnet of C type to guide the charged particle beam to a new neutron experimental room
was fabricated. Also power supplies for beam bunching system are being fabricated. The positions of A
beam profile monitor, slits, faraday cup and magnetic quadruple doublet lens was determined to confirm
an optimum pulsed beam shape. The beam dynamic for each component was calculated by NEC made
beam transport program.

Ⅱ. Structure of beam bunching system

The Nanosecond bunching system at KIGAM tandem accelerator consists of three stage ; (1) beam
pulsing and bunching system like fig. 2; (2) beam bending system into neutron scattering room like fig.
3 ; (3) beam guiding system into neutron generating chamber like fig. 6.
The total size of the beam pulsing and bunching system is 1100 mm, The interval from the end
electrod of deflector and bunch slit is 283 mm, deflector electrods length

500 cm

650 cm
d e te t c to r N e u tr o n
ch am be r
c o ll im a to r
G a te
V a lu e

w a ll
B P M N e u tro n
S t e e r ie r cham ber
f e e d t h r fua r a d a y
cup I m p la n t a t io n
cham ber ER D
S t e e r ie r ch am be r
106.5 cm

270 cm
TM P
R = 5 8 .9 5 c m 4 5o
b e n d in g s li t
150 cm m agnet
R ough S t e e r i e Sr l i t Scanner
R F S o u rc e pum p A c c e le r a t io n T a n k fe e d th ru
e in z e l F a ra d a y
BP M le n s e TM P o
b u n c h e r s lit 30 cup
S F gas
º§ ·ê οì Áî (50 m m ) º §·ê ·Î¿ ìÁ î

e n tr a n c e M Q D BP M
64

54

7 8 .2
R 5 .5
1

1 1 3 3 3
3

1
2 7 8 .3 S US 1
2 2.5
12 .5

10
9.7 1 0.3
3

R 5 .2 5
5 9. 0
1 42
R 5 .25 20 2 2 R 3
1

S F gas
1 1. 1
2 .4
9 3 .6
8 4. 2
2 5 9 .6

io n s o u r c e v a c c u u m e x it F a r a d a Ay n a l y z i n g
m agnet gauge cup M agnet
S N IC S s o u rc e

Fig. 1 KIGAM tandem accelerator with a nanosecond beam bunching system

and its width is 80 mm and 30 mm respectively. Buncher length is 265 mm considering the flight length
of ion beam during half period time of buncher. beam pulsing frequency is 4 MHz, and beam bunching
frequency is 8 MHz. The Sweeping slit size is the diameter of 1.5 mm. The einzel lense is positioned
before deflector to have a good sweeping. The linear motion facility of slit have been constructed for
using a continuous beam. the diameter of first bunching electrod is 30 mm.
The beam width of pulsing system can be calculated by this formula.[3] E denotes beam energy in keV.
d is the interval of deflector in cm. Δy is slit size. Charge is coulomb. Vo means the applied electrostatic
potential in volt. w is sweeping frequency in Hz. l1 is the length of deflector, l2 means the length from
deflector's electrod end to slit. When E is 28 keV, d is 3 cm , Δy is 0.2 cm, Charge is 1.6 x 10-19 coulomb,
Vo is 81 V, w is 4 MHz, l1 is 8 cm, and l2 is 28.3 cm, Beam width is 64 ns

Δt = 4 E d Δy /{ (q Vo w)(l12 +2 l1 l2 )}
 K IG A M B U N C H E R S Y S T E M
S lit m o v e r

Buncher cham ber

S lit

G a te
v a lv e

283 m m

D um m y
E in z e lle n s e S lit B uncher
D e f le c t o r

Fig. 2. Beam pulsing and bunching system at KIGAM

The electronics is designed in the method of applying a high voltage with MHz frequency both to
deflector electrod and to buncher electrod, synchronically. The frequency of deflector is 4 MHz, and that
of buncher is 8 MHz. The applied voltage is first controlled by two amplifier. The deflector amplifier gain
is 25 times larger than
original voltage and that of buncher is 25 times, respectively. Applied voltage is controlled by the LCR
resonance. The available deflector voltage is from 0.5 kV to 0.5 kV, and that of buncher is from 0 kV to
5 kV with connecting the one part of transformer to ground.
 Buncher

in p u t LC R
re s o n a n c e
AC o u tp u t
-5 V ~ + 5 V AC
0 V ~ 5 kV
300 W
8 MHz
P u ls e D e la y A m p lif ie r
g e n e ra to r
36 ns
4 MHz
50 W o u tp u t
AC
A m p lifie r - 0 .5 k V ~ + 0 .5 k V
in p u t
AC
-5 V ~ + 5 V

LCR
re s o n a n c e
D e f le c t o r

Fig. 3. Circuit of beam pulsing and bunching system

Also the available maximum magnetic field of 45o bending magnet with a water cooling is about 1 Tesla.
Total beaning degree is 75o with respect to beam direction. The bending magnet is fabricated to guide a
proton and a deutron considering of stigmatic effect. The curvature of bending magnet is about 59 cm.
Fig. 4 shows the 45o bending magnet facility. The maximum current is 75 A, which is applied to a
bending magnet. [4]

BR = 144 (MT/z2)0.5 kgauss-cm

B is Magnet field in kgauss, R is curvature of bending magnet in cm, T is the incident particle energy in
MeV, M denotes the mass of projectile particle, and Z is the atomic number of projectile particle.

Fig.4. 45o bending magnet

 600

550

Magnetic field (mT)

40 A

500

450

400 30 A

350

300
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Point

Fig. 5. magnetic field in the center of bending magnet.

Fig. 5 shows the magnetic field in the center of 45 o bending magnet. We can see the good stability of
magnetic field within 0.1 % error with respect to magnet center. The magnet field at both end side( point
1 and point 10 ) is smaller than that of the other side.
The beam optics is controlled by two magnetic dipole lenses after bending a beam. The beam profile
monitor and faraday cup was positioned to show the beam shape and the beam quantity respectively. Also
vacuum chamber was fabricated to pump an air from beam line and to obtain the start signal of TOF. The
neutron chamber was made to position a neutron target and to cool the neutron target with a fron collant.
The length of total beam line after beam bending is about 564 cm.
The neutron scattering room is constructed to decrease the background neutron scattering. The vertical
and horizontal room size is 600 cm and 500 cm respectively. The shielding distance between the original
experimental room and neutron scattering room is minimum 65 cm. The shielding material is mainly a
concreat, a high density polyethylen, and a styroform.
 158 70
1152 1180 1882
700 352
150

2 1
4 G a t e v a lv e
S te e r in g m a g n e t
I n s u la to r 3 T O F cham ber FC BPM Y X
G auge

v a c c u m e x it

TM P

7 8
836

5
R o ta ry p u m p
7

Fig. 6 Beam line after bending magnet

 Fig. 7 Design of neutron scattering room

Ⅲ. Simulation

The beam sweeping and bunching is performed by an electric field with a MHz frequency. If the applied
electric field were perpendicular to incident beam, this field could move the incident beam and the pulsed
beam could be obtained through slit, which was positioned at a constant distance. Also in buncher if
electric field paralleled the incident beam. and first electrod and last electrod must be grounded, The
different acceleration on the pulsed beam would happen at between first electrod and second electrod, the
different deceleration on the pulsed beam would happen at between second electrod and third electrod.
Double bunching would be performed.
The length from buncher end electrod to target is 16,305 mm. The total flight time of this length is
about 1.24 us. The average velocity after deflecting and bunching is 0.231 cm/ns(flight length =135cm),
and the velocity after acceleration is 2.5455 cm/ns(flight length=1087.5cm). The average velocity during
3.4 MeV acceleration is 1.800 cm/ns (length=408 cm).
A program was encoded to show the pulsing and bunching shape like Fig,9.
 deflector double bunching system

4MHz 8 MHz
slit

z
x

Fig. 8. The principle of pulsing and bunching

 250
Bunch 2 z(move) vs Hist 2
Bunch 1 z(move) vs Hist 1
Bunch 3 z(move) vs Hist 3

200

Particles / 0.01 cm
Fig. 9. The simulation of showing a pulsing and a bunching shape
150
The potential in this program can be calculated by Superfish. The arrival time of this calculation at a
neutron target can be obtained by recalculating the moving distance with average velocity of 0.231 cm/ns.
100
The moving distance is 286.15 cm. The beam width of bunching beam at target is about 1.43 ns. Fig. 10
and table 1 show the bunching beam shape at about target. The width of beam at target is about 1.43 ns
Also the beam dynamic for 50 each component was calculated by a beam transport program. The bunched
beam size in neutron target is a 6.9 mm in vertical and a 6.2 mm in horizental

0
-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Relative position (cm)

Fig. 10. The bunching beam shape at about neutron target

Table 1. The beam width at target by a simulation

 No. Z (cm) Bunch width (ns) *
1 314.71 5.61
2 286.15 1.43
3 257.29 5.71
4 228.08 18.05
5 199.45 27.75
6 170.41 36.41
7 141.55 51.39
8 112.76 73.68

Ⅳ. Conclusion

The specification of neutron bunching beam was designed to be that the repetition rate of this system is
8 MHz, the width is about 2 ns, duty factor is about 20 %, and proton energy dispersion is about 6 keV.
Also beamline, each electronics, bending
magnet for new proton beam port, and new neutron scattering experimental room were designed.

Reference
[1] G. D. Kim, W. Hong, H. W. Choi, H. J. Woo, J. K. Kim, and J. H. Chang, Proceedings of
2000 workshop on nuclear Pro. and Eva, 1(2001) 65.
[2] G. D. Kim, T. K. Yang, Y. S. Kim, H. J. Woo, H. W. Choi, W. Hong, and J. H. Chang,
Proceedings of 2001 workshop on nuclear Pro. and Eva, 1(2002) 53.
[3] J.B. Marion and J.L.Fowler, "Fast Neutron Physics", chapter 4, Interscience publisher, New York
(1960).
[4] W.D. Bygrave, et al, " Accelerator Nuclear Physics " Highvoltage Engineering Corporation
(197).