Brock Roberts Wins 2016 Faraday Cup Award

April 20, 2016

Brock Roberts

Brock Roberts has won the 2016 Faraday Cup Award, said Francis Perez, Scientific Chair of The International Beam Instrumentation Conference (IBIC) based in Barcelona, Spain. Roberts is a Ph.D. student of Professor Edl Schamiloglu.

Roberts will receive a 1000 Euro prize and a Commemorative Diploma during its next Conference in September.

Roberts will present his research during a 20-minute invited talk called "Compact noninvasive electron bunch-length monitor.”

Roberts' research culminated in the creation of a new diagnostic tool that measures the shape and duration of the electron bunches it accelerates. The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News Virginia installed this device into their operation.

"This new diagnostic tool provides the accelerator's control room with a real-time image of the electron bunches shape and duration by electromagnetically “listening” to the beam as it passes," said Roberts.

Brock explained that "listening" was an appropriate analogy in understanding his research.

"When a noise is heard," said Roberts, "sound waves vibrate hairs of different lengths within the ear’s cochlea, decomposing the sound into its frequency components.

"The compact non-invasive beam monitor works similarly; it listens electromagnetically, converting the beams spatial harmonics into harmonic resonances within an electromagnetic cavity."
The compact non-invasive beam monitor is a passive device, with its axially symmetric resonant modes tuned to be harmonics of the beams repetition rate. The passing beam excites these resonant modes and a sampling oscilloscope connected to the cavities antenna detects the superposition of these modes.

"A touch of Fourier math and voila! --- electron bunch shape!" Roberts said excitedly.