Paving the way for a unique experimental facility in Saudi Arabia
A paper has just been published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics on the design of a new electrostatic storage ring for beams at energies up to 30 keV·q that shall be built at the National Centre for Mathematics and Physics (NCMP), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
The ring design is based on existing electrostatic storage rings, but stretches significantly beyond them in that it shall form the core of a unique flexible experimental facility at KACST. The lattice of this ring has been designed in a way that enables the use of state-of-the-art experimental methods to study electron–ion, laser-ion, and ion-neutral beams interactions. The lattice design also allows for a future upgrade of the ring to a double storage ring structure that would enable ion–ion beam interactions to be performed.
In this paper, the design of this ring with a focus on beam dynamics calculations for the 7° single-bend racetrack layout is summarized. The study is principally based on the SIMION8 program. We complemented this study further by using purpose-written routines and MAD-X simulation code. An investigation into beam stability under consideration of non-linear field components in the electrostatic optical elements, is also included presented. Finally, different working points and stability regions are discussed.