Maximal Spontaneous Photon Emission and Energy Loss from Free Electrons

Free electron radiation such as Cerenkov, Smith--Purcell, and transition radiation can be greatly affected by structured optical environments, as has been demonstrated in a variety of polaritonic, photonic-crystal, and metamaterial systems. However, the amount of radiation that can ultimately be extracted from free electrons near an arbitrary material structure has remained elusive. Here we derive a fundamental upper limit to the spontaneous photon emission and energy loss of free electrons, regardless of geometry, which illuminates the effects of material properties and electron velocities. We obtain experimental evidence for our theory with quantitative measurements of Smith--Purcell radiation. Our framework allows us to make two predictions. One is a new regime of radiation operation---at subwavelength separations, slower (nonrelativistic) electrons can achieve stronger radiation than fast (relativistic) electrons. The second is a divergence of the emission probability in the limit of lossless materials. We further reveal that such divergences can be approached by coupling free electrons to photonic bound states in the continuum (BICs). Our findings suggest that compact and efficient free-electron radiation sources from microwaves to the soft X-ray regime may be achievable without requiring ultrahigh accelerating voltages.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence Excitations Near 2 MeV in 235U and 239Pu

A search for nuclear resonance fluorescence excitations in {sup 235}U and {sup 239}Pu within the energy range of 1.0- to 2.5-MeV was performed using a 4-MeV continuous bremsstrahlung source at the High Voltage Research Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Measurements utilizing high purity Ge detectors at backward angles identified 9 photopeaks in {sup 235}U and 12 photopeaks in {sup 239}Pu in this energy range. These resonances provide unique signatures that allow the materials to be non-intrusively detected in a variety of environments including fuel cells, waste drums, vehicles and containers. The presence and properties of these states may prove useful in understanding the mechanisms for mixing low-lying collective dipole excitations with other states at low excitations in heavy nuclei

Measurement of subpicosecond bunch lengths using coherent Smith-Purcell radiation

We report the use of coherent Smith-Purcell radiation to measure the bunch length of femtosecond-scale, 15 MeV electron bunches produced by a 17 GHz rf accelerator. The Smith-Purcell radiation was produced by passing a train of electron bunches above a metal grating. The radiation was verified as Smith-Purcell radiation by measuring the resonance condition, dependence on beam current, and dependence on beam height above the grating. Measurements of the intensity of the radiation vs emission angle were analyzed to obtain the bunch length. The accelerator was operated in two different modes, producing bunches that were determined to have bunch lengths of 600 and 1000±200  fs. These nondestructive bunch length measurements were found to agree well with an independent, but destructive, measurement using a microwave deflecting cavity

Low emittance electron beam formation with a 17 GHz RF gun

We report on electron beam quality measurement results from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 17 GHz RF gun experiment. The 1.5 cell RF gun uses a solenoid for emittance compensation. It has produced bunch charges up to 0.1 nC with beam energies up to 1 MeV. The normalized rms emittance of the beam after 35 cm of transport from the gun has been measured by a slit technique to be 3π mm mrad for a 50 pC bunch. This agrees well with PARMELA simulations at these beam energies. At the exit of the electron gun, we estimate the emittance to be about 1π mm mrad, which corresponds to a beam brightness of about 80 A/(π mm mrad)^{2}. Improved beam quality should be possible with a higher energy output electron beam from the gun

Fissile material detection using neutron time-correlations from photofission

The detection of special nuclear materials (SNM) in commercial cargoes is a major objective in the field of nuclear security. In this work we investigate the use of two-neutron time-correlations from photo-fission using the Prompt Neutrons from Photofission (PNPF) detectors in Passport Systems Inc.’s (PSI) Shielded Nuclear Alarm Resolution (SNAR) platform for the purpose of detecting ∼5 kg quantities of fissionable materials in seconds. The goal of this effort was to extend the secondary scan mode of this system to differentiate fissile materials, such as highly enriched uranium, from fissionable materials, such as low enriched and depleted uranium (LEU and DU). Experiments were performed using a variety of material samples, and data were analyzed using the variance-over-mean technique referred to as Y2F or Feynman-α. Results were compared to computational models to improve our ability to predict system performance for distinguishing fissile materials. Simulations were then combined with empirical formulas to generate receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for a variety of shielding scenarios. We show that a 10 second screening with a 200 μA 9 MeV X-ray beam is sufficient to differentiate kilogram quantities of HEU from DU in various shielding scenarios in a standard cargo container

Applications of Photonuclear Physics for International Safeguards and Security

Studies of nuclear resonance fluorescence based applications are presented. Important for these applications are data for isotopes such as {sup 239}Pu. Nuclear resonance fluorescence measurements of {sup 239}Pu were performed at the free electron laser facility at UC Santa Barbara using photons from a bremsstrahlung beam with an endpoint energies between 4.0 MeV and 5.5 MeV. Though no discrete states with significant confidence level were measured, we have excluded the region above 27(3) eV-barns, or 4-sigma, where we would expect only a small chance of false positives. Details of the measurements and the results are presented here