Design and testing of a high voltage coil for the kicker magnets of CERN's Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world¹s largest proton and lead-ion accelerator, is currently under construction at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. To extract the particle beams at the end of a physics run and in emergency situations 2 beam abort systems, built of 14 fast high-power kicker magnets each, are required. These magnets will operate at 35 kV and 30 kA with a pulse length of 90 ms and a rise time of 3 ms. A prototype magnet with a single turn high voltage coil has been built and tested. The magnet closely surrounds a ceramic vacuum tube. In order to insert this beam pipe into the magnet, the coil and the magnet have to be built in two halves which can easily be separated. The paper describes the design principles of the high voltage coil, the different options for the coil insulation material, as well as details concerning the adopted manufacturing process. The paper also describes the extensive loss-factor measurements which have been carried out as part of the acceptance tests. Finally it reports on endurance tests of the coil when mounted inside the magnet yoke and working in pulsed mode

Mild sonochemical exfoliation of bromine-intercalated graphite: a new route towards graphene

A method to produce suspensions of graphene sheets by combining solution-based bromine intercalation and mild sonochemical exfoliation is presented. Ultrasonic treatment of graphite in water leads to the formation of suspensions of graphite flakes. The delamination is dramatically improved by intercalation of bromine into the graphite before sonication. The bromine intercalation was verified by Raman spectroscopy as well as by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations show an almost ten times lower interlayer binding energy after introducing Br(2) into the graphite. Analysis of the suspended material by transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM and SEM) revealed a significant content of few-layer graphene with sizes up to 30 mu m, corresponding to the grain size of the starting material

Physical properties and behavior of high-performance concrete at high temperatures

The following report gives an overview of the TC program and some preliminary result

Solid State Switch Application for the LHC Extraction Kicker Pulse Generator

A semiconductor solid state switch has been constructed and tested in the prototype extraction kicker pulse generator of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [1]. The switch is made of 10 modified 4.5 kV, 66 mm symmetric GTO's (also called FHCT-Fast High Current Thyristor), connected in series. It holds off a d.c. voltage of 30 kV and conducts a 5 µs half-sine wave current of 20 kA with an initial di/dt of 10 kA/µs. Major advantages of the switch are the extremely low self-firing hazard, no power consumption during the ready-to-go status, instantaneous availability, simple condition control, very low noise emission during soft turn-on switching and easy maintenance. However, the inherent soft, relatively slow turn-on time is a non negligible part of the required rise time and this involves adaptation of generator components. A dynamic current range of 16 is achieved with variations in rise time, which stay within acceptable limits. Important generator improvements have been made with the series diodes and freewheel diodes. A more efficient droop compensation circuit is being studied. It is directly connected in series with the freewheel diode stack and maintains an acceptable flattop variation of 5% of the magnet current during 90 µs. This paper presents the complete generator, in particular the solid state switch and discusses related electrical measurements

Injection Matching Studies using Turn by Turn Beam Profile Measurements in the CERN PS

The very small emittance beam needed for the LHC requires that the emittance blow-up in its injector machines must be kept to a minimum. Mismatch upon the beam transfer from one machine to the next is a potential source of such blow-up. The CERN PS ring is equipped with 3 Secondary Emission Grids (SEM-Grids) which are used for emittance measurement at injection. One of these has been converted to a multi-turn mode, in which several tens of consecutive beam passages can be observed. This allows the study of mismatch between the PS-Booster and the PS. This paper describes the instrument and experimental results obtained during the last year

Electronic structure and chemical bonding in Ti2AlC investigated by soft x-ray emission spectroscopy

The electronic structure of the nanolaminated transition metal carbide Ti2AlC has been investigated by bulk-sensitive soft x-ray emission spectroscopy. The measured Ti L, C K and Al L emission spectra are compared with calculated spectra using ab initio density-functional theory including dipole matrix elements. The detailed investigation of the electronic structure and chemical bonding provides increased understanding of the physical properties of this type of nanolaminates. Three different types of bond regions are identified; the relatively weak Ti 3d - Al 3p hybridization 1 eV below the Fermi level, and the Ti 3d - C 2p and Ti 3d - C 2s hybridizations which are stronger and deeper in energy are observed around 2.5 eV and 10 eV below the Fermi level, respectively. A strongly modified spectral shape of the 3s final states in comparison to pure Al is detected for the buried Al monolayers indirectly reflecting the Ti 3d - Al 3p hybridization. The differences between the electronic and crystal structures of Ti2AlC, Ti3AlC2 and TiC are discussed in relation to the number of Al layers per Ti layer in the two former systems and the corresponding change of the unusual materials properties.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures; PACS:78.70.En, 71.15.Mb, 71.20.-