Design study for an energy-efficient MeV-ranged photon-beam facility

The efficient use of energy resources for scientific research is a challenging and timely topic, in particular for scientific fields that require particle accelerator facilities, such as particle or nuclear physics. Accelerator facilities capable of providing high electron beam currents with minimum emittance to ultra-relativistic energies are needed for the production of intense, MeV-ranged, quasi-monochromatic photon beams for photonuclear research and nuclear photonics applications. This contribution presents a design for such an electron accelerator which is capable of recycling most of the kinetic energy of the ultra-relativistic electrons by beam deceleration after a quasi destruction-free usage, thereby lowering significantly the electrical power consumption footprint of operating the accelerator without compromising beam delivery performance. We provide for the first time a technically quantitative design for a thrice-recirculating, superconducting energy-recovery LINAC (ERL) with individual beam transport focusing primarily on its use as a driver for a source of MeV-ranged photons from a laser-Compton backscattering (LCB) scheme. As a specific example, we choose an ERL design for maximum electron energy of 520 MeV at an electron current of up to 26 mA in continous wave mode at 1.3 GHz. This allows for 0.79 mA average current in a pulsed mode at 39.4 MHz, providing unprecedented spectral densities on the order of 105 $$\gamma$$ /(eV s) on target for photon energies around 5 MeV with the aforementioned repetition rate. Our Design concept of an Individually recirculating Compact ERL (DICE) is discussed. Options for its scientific use are sketched.

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Publication Details

Journal
The European Physical Journal Special Topics
Published
2026-06-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-026-02420-w
Primary Topic
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Design study for an energy-efficient MeV-ranged photon-beam facility

Stephan Kuschel, Michaela Arnold, Manuel Dutine, Thomas Walther et al.
The European Physical Journal Special Topics
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
article

Design study for an energy-efficient MeV-ranged photon-beam facility

Stephan Kuschel, Michaela Arnold, Manuel Dutine, Thomas Walther, J. Birkhan, Peter Williams, C. Matei, Felix Schließmann, J. Isaak, Ruben Grewe, V. Werner, D. L. Balabanski, J. Enders, Lambert Alff, Oliver Boine‐Frankenheim, R. V. F. Janssens, N. Pietralla, Maximilian Herbert, Lars Jürgensen, M. Roth, Adrian Brauch, Steve Benson, Maximilian Meier, Tim Ramaker, Calin A. Ur, Vincent Pruy, Kiriaki Prifti, Herbert De Gersem, Lisa B. Dingeldein, Dominic Schneider, Christopher P. J. Barty, Karsten Albe, Calvin R. Howell, Mohammad W. Ahmed, Andreas Zilges, Fatemeh Sadat Moujani Ghomi, Ying K. Wu
article en

Abstract

The efficient use of energy resources for scientific research is a challenging and timely topic, in particular for scientific fields that require particle accelerator facilities, such as particle or nuclear physics. Accelerator facilities capable of providing high electron beam currents with minimum emittance to ultra-relativistic energies are needed for the production of intense, MeV-ranged, quasi-monochromatic photon beams for photonuclear research and nuclear photonics applications. This contribution presents a design for such an electron accelerator which is capable of recycling most of the kinetic energy of the ultra-relativistic electrons by beam deceleration after a quasi destruction-free usage, thereby lowering significantly the electrical power consumption footprint of operating the accelerator without compromising beam delivery performance. We provide for the first time a technically quantitative design for a thrice-recirculating, superconducting energy-recovery LINAC (ERL) with individual beam transport focusing primarily on its use as a driver for a source of MeV-ranged photons from a laser-Compton backscattering (LCB) scheme. As a specific example, we choose an ERL design for maximum electron energy of 520 MeV at an electron current of up to 26 mA in continous wave mode at 1.3 GHz. This allows for 0.79 mA average current in a pulsed mode at 39.4 MHz, providing unprecedented spectral densities on the order of 105 $$\gamma$$ /(eV s) on target for photon energies around 5 MeV with the aforementioned repetition rate. Our Design concept of an Individually recirculating Compact ERL (DICE) is discussed. Options for its scientific use are sketched.

The European Physical Journal Special Topics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US), North Carolina Central University (US), GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE), Duke University (US), University of Cologne (DE), Cockcroft Institute (GB), University of California, Irvine (US), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (US), Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (RO), Laser Research Institute (CN)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
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