Electrospun Polymer Fibers for Electronic Applications

Nano- and micro- fibers of conjugated polymer semiconductors are particularly interesting both for applications and for fundamental research. They allow an investigation into how electronic properties are influenced by size confinement and chain orientation within microstructures that are not readily accessible within thin films. Moreover, they open the way to many applications in organic electronics, optoelectronics and sensing. Electro-spinning, the technique subject of this review, is a simple method to effectively form and control conjugated polymer fibers. We provide the basics of the technique and its recent advancements for the formation of highly conducting and high mobility polymer fibers towards their adoption in electronic applications

Preliminary assessment of beam impact consequences on LHC Collimators

The correct functioning of the LHC collimation system is crucial to attain the desired LHC luminosity performance. However, the requirements to handle high intensity beams can be demanding. In this respect, the robustness of the collimators plays an important role. An accident, which causes the proton beam to hit a collimator, might result in severe beam-induced damage and, in some cases, replacement of the collimator, with consequent downtime for the machine. In this paper, several case studies representing different realistic beam impact scenarios are shown. A preliminary analysis of the thermal response of tertiary collimators to beam impact is presented, from which the most critical cases can be identified. Such work will also help to give an initial insight on the operational constraints of the LHC by taking into account all relevant collimator damage limits.peer-reviewe

Thermostructural characterization and structural elastic property optimization of novel high luminosity LHC collimation materials at CERN

The CERN Large Hadron Collider is currently being upgraded to operate at a stored beam energy of 680 MJ through the High Luminosity upgrade. The LHC performance is dependent on the functionality of beam collimation systems, essential for safe beam cleaning and machine protection. A dedicated beam experiment at the CERN High Radiation to Materials facility is created under the HRMT-23 experimental campaign. This experiment investigates the behavior of three collimation jaws having novel composite absorbers made of copper diamond, molybdenum carbide graphite, and carbon fiber carbon, experiencing accidental scenarios involving the direct beam impact on the material. Material characterization is imperative for the design, execution, and analysis of such experiments. This paper presents new data and analysis of the thermostructural characteristics of some of the absorber materials commissioned within CERN facilities. In turn, characterized elastic properties are optimized through the development and implementation of a mixed numerical-experimental optimization technique.peer-reviewe

Beam feasibility study of a collimator with in-jaw beam position monitors

At present, the beam-based alignment of the LHC collimators is performed by touching the beam halo with both jaws of each collimator. This method requires dedicated fills at low intensities that are done infrequently and makes this procedure time consuming. This limits the operational flexibility, in particular in the case of changes of optics and orbit configuration in the experimental regions. The performance of the LHC collimation system relies on the machine reproducibility and regular loss maps to validate the settings of the collimator jaws. To overcome these limitations and to allow a continuous monitoring of the beam position at the collimators, a design with jaw-integrated Beam Position Monitors (BPMs) was proposed and successfully tested with a prototype (mock-up) collimator in the CERN SPS. Extensive beam experiments allowed to determine the achievable accuracy of the jaw alignment for single and multi-turn operation. In this paper, the results of these experiments are discussed. The non-linear response of the BPMs is compared to the predictions from electromagnetic simulations. Finally, the measured alignment accuracy is compared to the one achieved with the present collimators in the LHC.peer-reviewe

Preliminary Exploratory Study of Different Phase II Collimators

The LHC collimation system is installed and commissioned in different phases, following the natural evolution of the LHC performance. To improve cleaning efficiency towards the end of the low beta squeeze at 7TeV, and in stable physics conditions, it is foreseen to complement the 30 highly robust Phase I secondary collimators with low impedance Phase II collimators. At this stage, their design is not yet finalized. Possible options include metallic collimators, graphite jaws with a movable metallic foil, or collimators with metallic rotating jaws. As part of the evaluation of the different designs, the FLUKA Monte Carlo code is extensively used for calculating energy deposition and studying material damage and activation. This report outlines the simulation approach and defines the critical quantities involved

High energy beam impact tests on a LHC tertiary collimator at CERN HiRadMat facility

The correct functioning of the collimation system is crucial to safely operate the LHC. The requirements to handle high intensity beams can be demanding. In this respect, investigating the consequences of LHC particle beams hitting tertiary collimators (TCTs) in the experimental regions is a fundamental issue for machine protection. An experimental test was designed to investigate the robustness and effects of beam accidents on a fully assembled collimator, based on accident scenarios in the LHC. This experiment, carried out at the CERN HiRadMat (High Irradiation to Materials) facility, involved 440 GeV beam impacts of different intensities on the jaws of a horizontal TCT. This paper presents the experimental setup and the preliminary results obtained together with some first outcomes from visual inspection.peer-reviewe

Preliminary thermo-mechanical analysis of angular beam impact on LHC collimators

The correct functioning of the LHC Collimation System is crucial to attain the desired LHC luminosity performance. However, the requirements to handle high intensity beams can be demanding. In this respect, accident scenarios must be well studied in order to assess their effect on the robustness of the collimators. One of the most probable accident scenarios identified is an asynchronous beam dump coupled with slight angular misalignment errors of the collimator installation at the beam-line. Previous work presented a preliminary thermal evaluation of the extent of beam-induced damage for such scenarios, where it was shown that in some cases, a tilt of the jaw could actually serve to mitigate the effect of an asynchronous dump on the collimators. This paper will further analyze the response of tertiary collimators in presence of such angular jaw alignments. Such work will also help to start identifying optimal operational conditions.peer-reviewe

High energy beam impact tests on a LHC tertiary collimator at the CERN high-radiation to materials facility

The correct functioning of a collimation system is crucial to safely operate highly energetic particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The requirements to handle high intensity beams can be demanding. In this respect, investigating the consequences of LHC particle beams hitting tertiary collimators (TCTs) in the experimental regions is a fundamental issue for machine protection. An experimental test was designed to investigate the robustness and effects of beam accidents on a fully assembled collimator, based on accident scenarios in the LHC. This experiment, carried out at the CERN High-Radiation to Materials (HiRadMat) facility, involved 440 GeV proton beam impacts of different intensities on the jaws of a horizontal TCT. This paper presents the experimental setup and the preliminary results obtained, together with some first outcomes from visual inspection and a comparison of such results with numerical simulations.peer-reviewe

Preliminary comparison of the response of LHC tertiary collimators to proton and ion beam impacts

The CERN Large Hadron Collider is designed to bring into collision protons as well as heavy ions. Accidents involving impacts on collimators can happen for both species. The interaction of lead ions with matter differs to that of protons, thus making this scenario a new interesting case to study as it can result in different damage aspects on the collimator. This paper will present a preliminary comparison of the response of collimators to proton and ion beam impacts.peer-reviewe

behaviour of advanced materials impacted by high energy particle beams

Beam Intercepting Devices (BID) are designed to operate in a harsh radioactive environment and are highly loaded from a thermo-structural point of view. Moreover, modern particle accelerators, storing unprecedented energy, may be exposed to severe accidental events triggered by direct beam impacts. In this context, impulse has been given to the development of novel materials for advanced thermal management with high thermal shock resistance like metal-diamond and metal-graphite composites on top of refractory metals such as molybdenum, tungsten and copper alloys. This paper presents the results of a first-of-its-kind experiment which exploited 440 GeV proton beams at different intensities to impact samples of the aforementioned materials. Effects of thermally induced shockwaves were acquired via high speed acquisition system including strain gauges, laser Doppler vibrometer and high speed camera. Preliminary information of beam induced damages on materials were also collected. State-of-the-art hydrodynamic codes (like Autodyn®), relying on complex material models including equation of state (EOS), strength and failure models, have been used for the simulation of the experiment. Preliminary results confirm the effectiveness and reliability of these numerical methods when material constitutive models are completely available (W and Cu alloys). For novel composite materials a reverse engineering approach will be used to build appropriate constitutive models, thus allowing a realistic representation of these complex phenomena. These results are of paramount importance for understanding and predicting the response of novel advanced composites to beam impacts in modern particle accelerators