High-intensity proton LHC-like beam pulses are extracted from the SPS towards HiRadMat. Within the SPS up to ~3.5·1013 protons per pulse are accelerated to a momentum of 440 GeV/c and extracted to focal spots as small as ~0.5 mm2 (smaller beamspots down to ~0.25 mm2 are available upon request). The available beam parameters can be found in the following table. Please note that the table shows the entire parameter space of available beam properties but not limitations of certain parameter combinations. Upon discussion with the SPS operators beam parameters can be tuned to match the needs of each experiment.
| Protons | 208Pb Ions | |
|---|---|---|
| Beam Momentum | 440 GeV/c | 173.5 GeV/n (36.1 TeV per ion) |
| Pulse Energy | up to 2.4 MJ | up to 21 kJ |
| Minimum Bunch Intensity | 5 · 109 protons | 3 · 107 ions |
| Maximum Bunch Intensity | 2.1 · 1011 protons | 7 · 107 ions |
| Number of Bunches | 1 to 288 | 52 |
| Maximum Pulse Intensity | 3.46 · 1013 protons | 3.64 · 109 ions |
| Bunch Length | 1.5 ns (4 sigma) | 1.5 ns (4 sigma) |
| Bunch Spacing | 25 ns | 100 ns |
| Max. Pulse length | 7.95 us | 5.2 us |
| Cycle length | 22.9 or 40.8 s | 13.2 s |
| Beam Size at Target | variable around 1 mm2 | variable around 1 mm2 |
The HiRadMat facility generally uses a 440 GeV/c proton beam extracted from the SPS with a pulse length of up to 7.95 µs and a maximum pulse energy of up to 2.4 MJ. In addition to protons, 208Pb ion beams with a momentum of 173.5 GeV/nucleon, a pulse length of up to 5.2 µs and a total pulse energy of up to 21 kJ can be used too.
Beam optics
The following plot shows an indicative configuration of the twiss parameters along the HiRadMat beamline providing a spot size in both planes of σ = 0.5 mm at the focal point of the first experimental test stand (table B). Please note that HiRadMat can deliver a large range of different twiss parameter configurations which are subject to limitations that depend on the requested spot size, focal point and number of requested bunches per pulse.