Very High Radiation Detector for the LHC BLM System Based on Secondary Electron Emission

Beam Loss Monitoring (BLM) system plays a vital role in the active protection of the LHC accelerators elements. It should provide the number of particles lost from the primary hadron beam by measuring the radiation field induced by their interaction with matter surrounding the beam pipe. The LHC BLM system will use ionization chambers as standard detectors but in the areas where very high dose rates are expected, the Secondary Emission Monitor (SEM) chambers will be employed because of their high linearity, low sensitivity and fast response. The SEM needs a high vacuum for proper operation and has to be functional for up to 20 years, therefore all the components were designed according to the UHV requirements and a getter pump was included. The SEM electrodes are made of Ti because of its Secondary Emission Yield (SEY) stability. The sensitivity of the SEM was modeled in Geant4 via the Photo-Absorption Ionization module together with custom parameterization of the very low energy secondary electron production. The prototypes were calibrated by proton beams in CERN PS Booster dump line, SPS transfer line and in PSI Optis line. The results were compared to the simulations.