Pd. Ferguson et al., A THERMOCOUPLE-BASED BEAM PROFILE MONITOR FOR AN 800 MEV PROTON ACCELERATOR, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 344(2), 1994, pp. 300-306
A thermocouple-based proton beam profile monitor is designed for use i
n front of the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center target. The purpos
e of the device is to determine the location and standard deviation of
the incident proton beam using thermocouple temperatures. The beam pr
ofile monitor consists of two perpendicular planes of thermocouple wir
es mounted in 1 cm increments on Macor ceramic rings. Temperatures are
measured from heat generated volumetrically in the thermocouple wires
by the incident proton beam. Operating requirements for the device in
clude the ability to work in pressure ranges of 0.1 to 10 Torr and at
beam currents of 5 muA to 100 muA. Temperature data from a beam test a
re compared with predictions from an analytical model, a finite elemen
ts analysis using, the code TOPAZ2D, and an automated curve fitting ro
utine. Average relative errors of less than 10% are calculated from th
e analytical solution and the finite elements analysis. The curve fitt
ing routine provides quick estimates of the proton beam parameters whi
ch are useful during beam tuning.