Low-energy run of Fermilab Electron Cooler's beam generation system
In the context of the evaluation of possibly using the Fermilab Electron Cooler for the proposed low-energy RHIC run at BNL, operating the cooler at 1.6 MeV electron beam energy was tested in a short beam line configuration. The main conclusion of this feasibility study is that the cooler's beam generation system is suitable for BNL needs. The beam recirculation was stable for all tested parameters. In particular, a beam current of 0.38 A was achieved with the cathode magnetic field up to the maximum value presently available of 250 G. The energy ripple was measured to be 40 eV. A striking difference with running the 4.3 MeV beam (nominal for operation at FNAL) is that no unprovoked beam recirculation interruptions were observed. Electron cooling proposed to increase the luminosity of the RHIC collider for heavy ion beam energies below 10 GeV/nucleon [1] needs a good quality, 0.9-5 MeV electron beam. Preliminary design studies indicate that the scheme of the Recycler's electron cooler at FNAL is suitable for low-energy RHIC cooling and most parts of the cooler can be re-used after the end of the Tevatron Run II. To analyze issues related to the generation of the electron beam in the energy recovery mode and to gain experience with the beam transport at lower beam energy, a dedicated study was performed at FNAL with a beam run through a short beam line (so called U-bend). This report summarizes our findings and observations in the course of the measurements.