During the last three to four days, the EMMA accelerator physics team have been tuning the accelerator settings as part of the systematic studies towards first acceleration within EMMA. The team have studied the interaction of the RF field with the beam, on more than one occasion, with different accelerator settings in order to tune and understand the acceleration process. Detailed analysis of one of the data sets from an early run in this period has just confirmed acceleration. This analysis indicates that the injected EMMA beam energy has been increased by a few MeV. The acceleration is clearly detected by the high resolution, turn by turn, beam position monitoring system.
This is a very significant achievement for the scientist and technologist who designed and assembled this unique accelerator before embarking on the present programme which has rigorously studied, commissioned and developed the systems and processes required to take this step forward. The team includes STFC staff, members of the Cockcroft and John Adams accelerator institutes, university colleagues and a number of international experts from the FFAG community who have supported the project with their expertise from conception.
The next steps will be to move towards acceleration over the full range, from 10 to 20 MeV and commence the detailed characterisation of the EMMA accelerator and its novel acceleration scheme.
The picture here shows an image of the accelerated, extracted EMMA beam on the first screen of the diagnostics line taken on 17:53 on Tuesday 29th March.
