MD#1182: Calibration of diamond particle detectors in IP6

In case of an asynchronous beam dump with a fully filled LHC machine it is expected that all standard ionisation chamber Beam Loss Monitors (IC BLM) around the LHC dumping region in IP6 will be saturated. Diamond Beam Loss Monitors (dBLM) were therefore installed next to the movable dump protection absorber (TCDQ) downstream of the extraction kickers. These detectors allow resolving losses at a nanosecond timescale and with an dynamic range of several orders of magnitude; thus, allowing to know the number of nominal bunches impacting the TCDQ. After a first series of calibrations using asynchronous beam dump tests, an experiment was conducted during MD#1182 to demonstrate the possibility of resolving a nominal bunch hitting the TCDQ. The impact parameter of the bunches on the TCDQ was first scanned using probe bunches with lower intensity then tests were done with nominal bunches (1.1e11 p/bunch) at injection energy. High energy calibration of the losses was also attempted unsuccessfully. Due to different behaviour in observed in B1 and B2 an inspection in the LHC tunnel was performed. The analysis results and prospects for future MDs are presented below.