U.S. Particle Accelerator School
U.S. Particle Accelerator School
America's National School of Accelerator Science and Technology

Accelerator X-Ray Sources course

Sponsoring University:

Michigan State University

Course:

Accelerator X-Ray Sources

Instructor:

Richard Talman, Cornell University

Purpose and Audience
The purpose of the course is to bring the student up to speed in the use of accelerators as light sources, with emphasis on modern developments. The course is intended for students primarily interested in accelerators as light sources--mainly x-rays.

Prerequisites
Students should have completed intermediate level courses in mechanics and electromagnetism. The course assumes elementary aspects of accelerator physics such as transfer matrices and lattice functions. A student should either have encountered these things in an introductory accelerator course, or be sufficiently advanced to pick them up independently (from readily available reference material).

Objectives
The purpose of the course is to compare and contrast various "next-generation" accelerator x-ray sources that are currently under discussion, under design or under construction. These include conventional designs as well as ERL's (energy recovery linacs), and FEL's (free electron lasers).

Instructional Method
The course is a conventional lecture course, with problem sets but no laboratory component. Substantial blocks of time will be available for seminar-like discussion of topics of interest.

Course Content
The course material will be drawn almost exclusively from my book "Accelerator X-Ray Sources". In particular the subjects will include:
   Chap. 4. Simple Storage Rings
   Chap. 5. Influence of Synchrotron Radiation on a Storage Ring
   Chap. 10. Energy Recovery Linac
   Chap. 11. Fast Cycling Conventional Light Source
   Chap. 13. Space Charge and Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (time permitting)
   Chap. 14. X-Ray FEL

Reading Requirements
The material just listed already includes more than can be plausibly digested in the available time, but browsing for supporting material from other chapters of the text will also be appropriate. The USPAS will provide one copy of "Accelerator X-Ray Sources" to each of my students.

Credit Requirements
Students will be evaluated based on class participation, problem sets and final exam. Time and practicalities permitting, the exam may take the form of a brief class presentation of a topic of interest.