ASTeC and the Cockcroft Institute have a longstanding interest in producing X-rays via inverse Compton scattering, dating back to work on the ALICE Energy Recovery Linac in 2009. Now ASTeC accelerator physics group members Bruno Muratori, Hywel Owen, and Peter Williams, together with CI Manchester student Joe Crone, and collaborators at Cornell University, Old Dominion University, and Jefferson Lab, have published a design for such a source on the CBETA ERL at Cornell.
This important paper shows that ERL driven Compton sources can outperform the largest synchrotron radiation facilities for photons above 300 keV, even though the accelerator is much smaller and cheaper. It paves the way for production of even higher energy gamma rays, potentially at a future UK-XFEL, which will have far reaching implications for nuclear physics, security, and medical isotope production.
As such the paper has been selected by Physical Review – Accelerators and Beams as an Editors Suggestion in the May 2021 edition. The paper can be read here.
