Progress in Prototype Tests of Key Components for High Intensity Heavy-ion Accelerator Facility

Lately, researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have successfully assembled and tested the prototypes of key components for the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), one of China’s Major National Scientific and Technological Infrastructure. These prototypes include the magnetic-alloy accelerating cavity, the superconducting magnet, the full-energy storage power supply and the extreme-high-vacuum thin-wall vacuum chamber. In addition, fabrication of some conventional devices is nearly accomplished. Those improvements ensure the HIAF project goes smoothly.

As one of the important infrastructure projects during the 12th Five-Year Plan, HIAF is an essential accelerator proposed and constructed by IMP for heavy-ion physics and applications. The project is located in Huizhou of Guangdong province, with a construction period of 7 years which has started on December 23, 2018. It is expected that the first accelerator component will be installed by the end of 2022, and the commissioning of HIAF will be completed in 2025.

“HIAF is designed to offer ideal conditions for experiments and applications, for example, identification of nuclides and mass measurement of short-lived nuclei.” said Yang Jiancheng, the chief engineer of the HIAF project and a professor from IMP, “It is aimed to deliver the world’s highest-intensity pulsed heavy-ion beams. Innovations on the accelerating cavity, magnet, power supply and vacuum chamber are important for this purpose.” In last decade, the team has solved a series of technical problems. The first oil-cooled magnetic-alloy cavity with low frequency, wide band and high accelerating gradient was developed successfully. The test of MA rings used for the cavity shows an excellent performance in low frequency range. IMP and cooperative manufactures jointly have already built automatic production lines of magnetic-alloy ring with independent intellectual property rights. Besides, the subsystems as superconducting magnets and normal magnets also make progress continuously. “The successful development and testing of these key prototypes lay a good foundation for HIAF construction.” Added Yang.

Figure 1. The oil-cooled magnetic-alloy cavity developed for HIAF. (Image from IMP)

Figure 2. The superconducting magnet developed for HIAF. (Image from IMP)