MRI: Development of an Instrument for Precision Controlled Radiation Exposures, Charged Beam Profile Measurement, and Real-time Fluence Monitoring Beyond 10^16 1-MeV-n-equivalent

许多科学研究，如粒子物理项目优先小组（P5），已经将瑞士欧洲核子研究中心实验室的大型强子对撞机（LHC）确定为近期最优先的大型项目，以提高我们对宇宙基本力的认识。大型强子对撞机（Large Hadron Collider）和其他粒子物理发现设施的探测器通过对穿越它们的高能粒子（辐射）做出反应来记录数据。因此，探测器本身必须是耐辐射的。一项世界性的计划正在进行中，目的是在计划中的未来对撞机中开发耐辐射技术来检测粒子。这些对撞机，例如高亮度大型强子对撞机（HL-LHC）（计划在2023年左右开始运行），通常会应用更高的能量和亮度来探索全新的发现领域，相应地会有更大的辐射惩罚。该设备是一种精确控制辐射暴露的仪器，将使目前为大型强子对撞机设计的粒子探测器能够在恶劣的辐射环境中运行。为了设计这些新的探测器，需要能够提供非常高剂量辐射（10^16中子当量）的设施，聚焦粒子束用于照射候选技术。世界上很少有设施能做到这一点，而且对时间的需求非常高。通过该合同建造的自动化设备将大大减少辐照所需的时间，从而能够在新墨西哥州的洛斯阿拉莫斯中子科学中心（LANSCE）等设施进行更多的测试/实验。辐射暴露研究是发展传感器和电子产品的必要步骤，这些传感器和电子产品适用于广泛的现代需求，包括航空航天和国防应用。参与该项目的物理系研究生和本科生将接受仪器设计方面的培训，这是他们作为实验者成长的关键，也是培养STEM领域具有全球竞争力的劳动力的重要因素。

Many scientific studies, such as the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5), have identified the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)at the CERN Laboratory in Switzerland as the highest priority near-term large project for advancing our knowledge of the fundamental forces of the universe. Detectors at the Large Hadron Collider and other facilities for particle physics discovery record data by responding to energetic particles---radiation---that traverse them. Consequently the detectors themselves must be radiation tolerant. A worldwide program is underway to develop radiation tolerant technologies for detection of particles at planned future colliders. These colliders, for example the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) (scheduled to begin operation around 2023), will typically apply higher energy and luminosity to explore completely new discovery realms, with correspondingly greater radiation penalty. The device that will be built for this award, an instrument for precision controlled radiation exposures, will enable the particle detectors currently being designed for the LHC to operate in that harsh radiation environment. In order to design these new detectors, facilities are needed that can provide very high doses of radiation (10^16 Neutron-equivalent) with focused particle beams for irradiation of candidate technologies. There are very few facilities in the world that can do this and the demand for time to do these tests is extremely high. The automated device that will be built through this award will greatly reduce the time needed to do the irradiation and thus enable many more tests/experiments at facilities such as the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) in New Mexico. Radiation exposure studies are a necessary step in the development of sensors and electronics applied to a broad scope of modern needs including aerospace and defense applications. Graduate and undergraduate physics students participating in this project will receive training in instrument design that is key to their growth as experimenters and important to the development of a globally competitive work force in STEM fields.