Ricerc@Sapienza

In high-brightness LINear ACcelerators (LINACs), electron bunch length can be measured indirectly by a radio frequency deflector (RFD). In this paper, the accuracy loss arising from non-negligible correlations between particle longitudinal positions and the transverse plane (in particular the vertical one) at RFD entrance is analytically assessed. Theoretical predictions are compared with simulation results, obtained by means of ELEctron Generation ANd Tracking (ELEGANT) code, in the case study of the gamma beam system (GBS) at the extreme light infrastructure—nuclear physics (ELI-NP).

The Gamma Beam System (GBS) is a high brightness LINAC to be installed in Magurele (Bucharest) at the newELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure — Nuclear Physics) laboratory. The accelerated electrons, with energiesranging from 280 to 720 MeV, will collide with a high power laser to produce tunable high energy photons(0.2–20 MeV ) with high intensity (1013photons/s), high brilliance and spectral purity (0.1%BW), through theCompton backscattering process. This light source will be open to users for nuclear photonics and nuclear physicsadvanced experiments.

Beam injection and extraction from a plasma module is still one of the crucial aspects to solve in order to producehigh quality electron beams with a plasma accelerator. Proper matching conditions require to focus the incominghigh brightness beam down to few microns size and to capture a high divergent beam at the exit without loss ofbeam quality. Plasma-based lenses have proven to provide focusing gradients of the order of kT/m with radiallysymmetric focusing thus promising compact and affordable alternative to permanent magnets in the design oftransport lines.

Plasma wake-field acceleration experiments are performed at the SPARC_LAB test facility by using a gas-filled capillary plasma source composed of a dielectric capillary. The electron can reach GeV energy in a fewcentimeters, with an accelerating gradient orders of magnitude larger than provided by conventional techniques.In this acceleration scheme, wake fields produced by passing electron beams through dielectric structures candetermine a strong beam instability that represents an important hurdle towards the capability to focus high-current electron beams in the transverse plane.

The current activity of the SPARC_LAB test-facility is focused on the realization of plasma-based accelerationexperiments with the aim to provide accelerating field of the order of several GV/m while maintaining theoverall quality (in terms of energy spread and emittance) of the accelerated electron bunch. In the following,the current status of such an activity is presented. We also show results related to the usability of plasmas asfocusing lenses in view of a complete plasma-based focusing and accelerating system

We report on the use of an optical sensing platform based on Bloch surface waves sustained by one-dimensional photonic crystals as a novel optical tool to probe in real time the fluid flow at a boundarywall of a microfluidic channel under dynamic conditions. Understanding how fluid flow interacts withwall surfaces is crucial for a broad range of biological processes and engineering applications, such as sur-face wave biosensing. The proposed platform provides nanometric resolution with respect to the distancefrom the boundary wall sensor’s surface.

A feasibility study concerning the application of Poly-Allyl-Diglycol Carbonate (CR-39TM) solid state tracks detectors for fast survey of residual alpha contamination has been carried out at Casaccia Research Center, as a joint effort from ENEA, Sogin, and Sapienza University of Rome. The main target of the ac- tivity is to develop and set up a fast and economic method for assessing the presence of residual ura- nium, plutonium, and/or mixed oxides (MOX) traces on walls, floor, furniture, and small objects (PC- displays, keyboards, tools, etc.) of hot laboratories under decommissioning.

Plasma-based acceleration has already proved the ability to reach ultra-high accelerating gradients. However
the step towards the realization of a plasma-based accelerator still requires some e
ff ort to guarantee high brightness beams, stability and reliability. A significant improvement in the efficiency of PWFA has been
demonstrated so far accelerating a witness bunch in the wake of a higher charge driver bunch. The transformer
ratio, therefore the energy transfer from the driver to the witness beam, can be increased by resonantly exciting

In Particle Therapy, cancer treatments are performed using accelerated charged particles whose high irradiation precision and conformity permit to destroy the tumour while sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. Several secondary particles are produced during the treatments mainly photons, protons and neutrons. The reduced attenuation length of neutrons yields a secondary particle sample that is larger in number when compared to photons and charged particles.

GEM-based detectors had a noticeable development
in last years and have successfully been employed in different
fields from High Energy Physics to imaging applications. Light
production associated to the electron multiplication allows to
perform an optical readout of these devices. The big progress
achieved in CMOS-based photo-sensors makes possible to develop
a high sensitivity, high granularity and low noise readout. In this
paper we present the results obtained by reading out the light
produced by a triple-GEM structure by means o