FRIB accelerates first beams in three of forty-six superconducting cryomodules

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The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams achieved a major project milestone by accelerating its first beams in three of forty-six superconducting cryomodules. This demonstrates for the first time that the major systems (front end, liquid helium plant, superconducting cryomodules) which were commissioned individually, work well together and can successfully accelerate beams of atomic particles.

Beams of argon and krypton were accelerated to the beam energy of 2 million electron-volts per nucleon (MeV/nucleon) required at project completion for the first three cryomodules.

The heart of FRIB is a high-power superconducting linear accelerator that will accelerate ion beams up to half the speed of light to strike a target, creating rare isotopes. The linear accelerator is made of cryomodules, which contain superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities that accelerate the beam while operating at temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero. Much like a heavy truck, heavy ion beams speed up slowly and the first three cryomodules accelerate the beam to 1 percent of 200 MeV/nucleon, the remaining 43 cryomodules will provide the other 99 percent of beam energy.

To read more please visit: https://frib.msu.edu/news/2018/first-beams.html

Source: FRIB