Developing high-response kicker magnets for advanced applications

In order to delve even further into the fabric of matter, particle accelerators will have to become better at what they do and reach even greater voltages in order to create more powerful collisions between particles. The International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) are overseeing the drive for new accelerator equipment and help determine long-term plans for both the introduction of new systems and the upgrading of existing ones. There are several plans to introduce new colliders with greater energetic potentials, including the Future Circular Collider (FCC), which is expected to reach 350 GeV for some collisions. However, to reach those energies there are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed, one of the most pressing of which is the magnetic driving and steering system.

Modifying the form of the kicker magnet response is seen as a major breakthrough in the reliable forming of true stepped pulse signal, which can be used to enhance the driving and deflection properties of the magnetic system. The use of non-linear materials overcomes the traditional problem of waveform and saturation clipping to a great extent, making the response of the magnets far more predictable.