Speaker
Description
Accurate characterization of the intensity and composition of ion beams extracted from a source and transported through a low-energy beam transport (LEBT) line is crucial for several scientific, industrial, and medical applications, where beam contaminants may compromise treatment plans or irradiation protocols.
State-of-the-art diagnostics for measuring beam current and composition are typically invasive, which limits their use for continuous online monitoring. This limitation is particularly relevant for mixed ion beams, where species with nearly identical mass-to-charge ratios cannot be separated by the analyzing magnet or reliably characterized by diagnostics installed downstream of the ion source.
The INFN-funded INSIGHT project addresses this challenge through the development of MIBEST, an innovative, non-invasive device for the online identification and quantification of mixed ion-beam components. The device exploits beam-emission spectroscopy in an unconventional configuration. This minimally invasive approach enables real-time beam-composition monitoring in LEBT lines, with potential applications in high-intensity accelerator injection systems, carbon–helium hadron therapy, ion implantation, and radiation-hardness studies.
This contribution presents the physical principles, conceptual design, and expected performance of the proposed device, together with preliminary simulation results and the planned proof-of-concept measurements.