Development and testing of an ion probe for tightly-bunched particle beams

Many high-energy physics experiments require a high-quality and well-diagnosed charged-particle beam (CPB). Precise knowledge of beam size, position, and charge distribution is often crucial to the success of the experiment. It is also important in many applications that the diagnostic used to determine the beam parameters be nonintercepting and nonperturbing. This requirement rules out many diagnostics, such as wire scanners, thin foils which produce Cerenkov or transition radiation, and even some rf cavity diagnostics. Particularly difficult to diagnose are tightly-focused (r{sub b} << 1 mm), short-duration (psec) beams, such as those in state-of-the-art or next-generation particle colliders. In this paper we describe an ion probe that is capable of penetrating the space-charge field of densely bunched CPBs without perturbation, thereby enabling the measurement of the microstructure of the bunch. This diagnostic probe uses a finely-focused stream of ions to interact with the CPB. Related techniques have been discussed in the literature. In fact, the present work evolved from an electron deflection diagnostic for CPBs that we previously described. A similar electron probe was tested even earlier at TRIUMF and in the Former Soviet Union. Electron probes have also been used to measure plasma sheaths and potentials and the neutralization of heavy ion beams. Also, Mendel has used an ion beam (22 keV He{sup +}) to probe rapidly varying fields in plasmas. The probe ions are injected across the beam tube and into the path of the high-energy CPB. The ions are deflected by the CPB, and the direction and magnitude of the deflection are directly related to the spatial and temporal charge distribution of the CPB. Easily-resolved deflections can be produced by microbunches having total charge on the order of a nCoul and pulse durations of a few psec. The deflected ions are monitored with a suitable detector, in this case a microchannel plate capable of detecting single ions