Design and first operation of a supersonic gas jet based beam profile monitor

Noninterceptive beam profile monitors are of great importance for many particle accelerators worldwide. Extra challenges are posed by high energy, high intensity machines and low energy low intensity accelerators. For these applications, existing diagnostics are no longer suitable due to the high power of the beam or the very low intensity. In addition, many other accelerators, from medical to industrial will benefit from a noninvasive, real time beam profile monitor. In this paper we present a new beam profile monitor with a novel design for the nozzle and skimmer configuration to generate a supersonic gas jet meeting ultrahigh vacuum conditions and we describe the first results for such a beam profile monitor at the Cockcroft Institute. This monitor is able to measure two-dimensional profiles of the particle beam while causing negligible disturbance to the beam or to the accelerator vacuum. The ultimate goal for this diagnostic is to provide a versatile and universal beam profile monitor suitable for measuring any beams.