Emerging technologies for crystal-based gamma-ray light sources

Project Information

TECHNO-CLS

Grant agreement ID: 101046458

DOI

10.3030/101046458

EC signature date 22 April 2022

Start date 1 June 2022

End date 31 May 2027

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 2 643 187,50

EU contribution

€ 2 643 187,50

Coordinated by

MBN RESEARCH CENTER GGMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - TECHNO-CLS (Emerging technologies for crystal-based gamma-ray light sources)

Reporting period: 2024-06-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

TECHNO-CLS project aims at the breakthrough in technologies needed for designing and practical realisation of novel gamma-ray Light Sources (LS) operating at photon energies from ~100 keV up to GeV range that can be constructed through exposure of oriented crystals (linear, bent and periodically bent) to the beams of ultrarelativistic charged particles. The TECHNO-CLS high-risk/high-gain science-towards-technology breakthrough research programme will address the physics of the processes accompanying the oriented crystal exposure to irradiation by the high-energy electron and positron beams at the atomistic level of detail needed for the realisation of the TECHNO-CLS goals. A broad interdisciplinary, international collaboration has been created previously in the frame of FP7 and H2020 projects, which performed initial experimental tests to demonstrate the crystalline undulator (CU) idea, production and characterisation of periodically bent crystals and the related theory. TECHNO-CLS aims to build the high-risk/high-gain sciencetowards- technology breakthrough research programme on these successful studies aiming at a practical realisation of the novel gamma-ray LSs such as CUs, crystalline synchrotron radiation emitters, and many others. Additionally, by means of a pre-bunched beam a CU LS has a potential to generate coherent superrradiant radiation with wavelengths orders of magnitudes less than 1 Angstrom, i.e. within the range that cannot be reached in existing LSs based on magnetic undulators. Such LSs will have many applications in the basic sciences including nuclear and solid-state physics and the life sciences. Theoretical, computational, experimental and technological results obtained in the course of this project will pave a way for key technological developments of the LSs and their wide exploitation. The TECHNO-CLS international collaboration possesses all the necessary expertise to conduct successfully the outlined programme.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

1. Manufacture of bent and periodically bent crystalline samples by means of previously developed techniques (mechanical bending, surface grooving, deposition of stripes, growing of silicon-germanium and diamond-boron superlattices).
2. Experimental characterization of the fabricated crystalline samples at synchrotron B16 beamline of the Diamond Light Source and at the ESRF facility.
3. Experiments carried out that allowed to positively assess a Pulse Laser Melting (PLM) technology as a novel technique to produce bent and periodically bent crystalline structures.
4. Development of the diagnostic system for the analysis of the structure of the acoustically excited crystals.
5. A beam transport system for monochromatic low divergence 530 MeV positron beam was built at the Mainz Mikrotron (MAMI) facility at University of Mainz.
6. First channeling measurements with the 530 positron beam of MAMI on single Si crystals were carried out. Characterisation of channeling radiation in these experiments was performed.
The experimental setup for radiation detection was tested. The first channeling experiments with
7. First observation of a peak of the undulator radiation was made at MAMI in the experiments with 855 MeV electrons chaneling in a boron-doped diamond superlattice.
8. A peak of the crystalline undulator radiation was observed in the experiment at the CERN SPS H2 beamline with the 35 GeV positron beam interacting with a periodically bent silicon crystal (PBC-Si-SiN), fabricated using a surface-stressor technique.
9. Piezoelectric transducers appropriate for generation of acoustic waves in silicon crystals based on thin Quartz single crystal plates were developed.
10. The process of photon emission by 10 GeV electrons and positrons in periodically bent diamond, silicon and germanium crystals has been characterized via accurate atomistic simulations carried out by means of MBN Explorer software.
11. Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed by means of MBN Explorer software package developed by the MBN RC to quantify the impact of dopant concentration on structure of Si-Ge and boron-diamond superlattices.
12. Systematic numerical evaluation of the impact of radiation reaction force on the channeling phenomenon at ultra-high energies.
13. Systematic numerical analysis of the impact of the ionisation losses on the channeling efficiency and the radiation emission was carried out for 530 MeV positrons and 855-1500 electrons channeling in single diamond, silicon and germanium crystals.
14. Simulations of the undulator and channeling radiation emitted by 530 MeV positrons and 855 MeV electrons in periodically bent boron-doped diamond crystals have been carried out by the MBN RC by means of relativistic molecular dynamics using MBN Explorer.
15. Radiation emission by 10 GeV and sub-GeV positrons and electrons in silicon and diamond crystals was simulated and analysed. It was explicitly demonstrated that the CLS can provide more intense gamma-radiation than modern laser-Compton gamma-ray light sources.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

1. Construction and testing of a 530 MeV positron beamline at the Mainz Microtron MAMI.
2. Experimental characterization of fabricated crystalline samples made of novel materials (Iridium, Tungsten, Silicon Carbide) for potential application in CLSs.
3. Periodically bent germanium crystals suitable for the CLS testing at high energies (20 GeV or more) were fabricated using the PLM technology.
4. Manufacture of a high-quality boron-doped 4-period diamond undulator crystal which was used in the channeling experiment where the crystalline undulator peak was detected for the first time.
5. Advanced numerical analysis of feasibility of creating a crystalline undulator by means of acoustic waves (AW). The analysis has been followed by designing and specification of the corresponding experimental setup for (i) AW excitation, (ii) characterization of the resulting crystalline structure, (iii) carrying out channeling experiments.
6. Simulations of the undulator and channeling radiation emitted by 530 MeV positrons and 855 MeV electrons in periodically bent boron-doped diamond crystals by means of relativistic molecular dynamics using MBN Explorer.
7. By means of numerical simulations it was shown that for moderate values of the beam current the number of gamma-quanta in the 1–100 MeV energy range emitted in CLSs are higher than that at modern laser-Compton gamma-ray light sources operating at much higher beam currents.

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