The Nuclear Physics (NP) Program supports a broad range of activities aimed at research and development related to the science, engineering, and technology of heavy ion, electron, and proton accelerators and their associated systems. Research and development (R&D) is desired that will advance fundamental accelerator technology and its applications to nuclear physics scientific research. Areas of interest include the enabling technologies of the Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at Argonne National Laboratory, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. Also of interest are technologies relevant to the development of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to be constructed at BNL. All of the above facilities make use of superconducting technologies, including superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator components, superconducting magnets, and supporting infrastructure and technologies. Relevance to nuclear physics must be explicitly described, as discussed in more detail below. All applications must explicitly show relevance to the DOE NP Program. Applications must be informed by the state of the art in nuclear physics applications, commercially available products, and emerging technologies. An application based on merely incremental improvements or little innovation will be considered nonresponsive unless context is supplied that convincingly shows its potential for significant impact or value to the DOE NP Program. Applications which are largely duplicative of previously funded research by NP or the Office of High Energy Physics will be considered nonresponsive to this topic. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review recent SBIR/STTR awards from NP to avoid duplication. Those awards can be found at https://science.osti.gov/sbir/awards/ (Release 1, DOE Funding Program: Nuclear Physics). The subtopics below refer to innovations that will advance our nation's capability to perform nuclear physics research, and more specifically to improve existing or planned DOE NP Scientific User Facilities and the wider NP community's experimental programs. Although applicants may wish to gather information from and collaborate with experts at DOE National Laboratories, for example, to establish feasibility for their innovations, DOE expects all applicants to address commercialization opportunities for their product or service in adjacent markets such as medicine, homeland security, the environment and industry. Applications using the resources of a third party (such as a DOE laboratory) must include in the application a letter of certification from an authorized official of that organization. Please note: following award, all DOE SBIR/STTR grant projects requiring high performance computing (HPC) support are eligible to apply to use the DOE National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) resources. NERSC is the primary scientific computing facility for the DOE. If you think you will need to use the HPC capabilities of NERSC during your Phase I or Phase II project, you may be eligible for this free resource. Learn more about NERSC and how to apply for NERSC resources following the award of a Phase I or Phase II project at http://www.nersc.gov/users/accounts/allocations/request-form/. Applications are sought only in the following subtopics: a. Materials and Components for Radio Frequency Devices Applications are sought to improve or advance superconducting and normal-conducting materials or components for RF devices used in particle accelerators. Areas of interest include; 1. peripheral components for both room temperature and superconducting structures, such as beam pipe absorbers, particulate-free bellows, NEG pumps, and RF-shielded gate valves and associated low-loss cryogenic beam line flange connections. Design should be for a common flange size, e.g., 2.75 , with scalability to larger sizes; 2. techniques for removal of 1 m and larger particulates in diameter from the inner surfaces of superconducting cavities to replace or compliment high-pressure water rinsing e.g., methods for cleaning whole cryomodules, alternative techniques to dry ice and high-pressure water cleaning; and 3. metal forming techniques, with the potential for significant cost reductions by simplifying elliptical cavity sub-assemblies, e.g., dumbbells and end groups, as well as eliminating or reducing the number of electron beam welds. Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov b. Design and Operation of Radio Frequency Beam Acceleration Systems Applications are sought for the design, fabrication, and operation of radio frequency accelerating structures and systems for electrons, protons, as well as light- and heavy-ion particle accelerators as enumerated. 1. innovative techniques for relative field control and synchronization of multiple crab structures (0.01 of phase and 0.01% amplitude RMS jitter) in the presence of 10-100 Hz microphonics-induced variations of the structures' resonant frequencies (0.1-1.5 GHz); and 2. a high gain (for example, with quality factor at a few hundred) & low delay (a few hundred nanosecond) RF control system for SRF crab cavities 3. development of wide tuning (with respect to the center frequency of up to 10-4) SRF cavities for acceleration and/or storage of relativistic heavy ions; Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov c. Particle Beam Sources and Techniques Applications are sought to develop: 1. methods and/or devices for improving emission capabilities of photocathode sources (polarized and unpolarized) used by the nuclear physics community, such as improving charge lifetime, bunch charge, average current, emission current density, emittance, or energy spread (Note, Letters of Intent or applications proposing the use of diamond amplifiers and variants will be considered nonresponsive.); 2. novel technologies for ion sources capable of generating high-intensity, high-brightness, high charge state heavy ion beams, for example: ~12 p A of uranium beam at charge states between q=32 and 46 with rms emittance of 0.1 mm-mrad. If an oven is used to provide uranium beams with these properties, the high temperature oven must reliably reach 2300 C within the high field of the electroncyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source injection region; 3. novel quench protection systems for Nb3Sn and high-temperature superconducting (HTS) 4th and 5th Generation ECR ion source combined function magnets (sextupole and solenoids); 4. efficient continuous wave (cw) positron beam sources (polarized and unpolarized) motivated by the nuclear physics community, aimed at improving aspects of pair-production targets, operating at low energy (10-200 MeV), high power (50-100 kW), and at several 100 MHz; and 5. high average current (>20 mA) and high voltage (>200 kV) reliable and stable power supplies for high current electron beam sources for beam cooling and positron production Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov d. Polarized Beam Sources and Polarimeters With respect to polarized sources, applications are sought to develop: 1. Associated components for significantly improving performance of high current CW polarized electron sources for delivering beams of ~1-10 mA, with longitudinal polarization greater than 90%; and a photocathode quantum efficiency > 5% at ~780 nm. 2. absolute polarimeters for spin polarized 3He beams with energies up to 160 GeV/nucleon; 3. polarimeter concepts for bunch by bunch hadron polarimetry with a bunch spacing as short as 2 ns; 4. advanced electron or positron beam polarimeters such as those that operate in the energy range of 1- 100 MeV, with average currents exceeding 100 uA, with accuracies that are <1%; 5. steering and/or lens magnets for helicity correlated beam corrections, providing rectangular waveforms with rise time <10 microseconds; and, 6. low energy <10 MeV electron spin rotators providing < +/- 5 deg precession, with minimum disturbance to beam properties For applications involving software, open-source solutions are strongly encouraged. Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov e. Rare Isotope Beam Production Technology Applications are sought to develop: 1. Radiation resistant stepper motor with radiation tolerance to 104 Gy (106 rad); 2. Development of a non-destructive diagnostics system to measure intensities of fast (~100-200 MeV/u) rare isotope beams in the range from 104 to 1011 ions/sec; 3. Development of radiation hard tracking detector system for phase space diagnostics of ions. If possible, it should avoid the need for gases. Ideal conditions as follows: particle rates up to ~104 Hz, 30 cm by 20 cm detection region; ~1mm position resolution for ions with Z>10 [21]; 4. Development of additive manufacturing technologies (3D printing) for construction of superconducting coils for Walstrom type [24] large aperture multipoles for fast rare isotope beam spectrometers; and 5. Development of alternative manufacture technologies (for example, hydroforming) for high power (up to 300 kW) beam dump for ~ 200 MeV/u heavy ion beam 6. Compact digital imaging systems are sought for beam and target system diagnostic applications. Sensor should be capable of HD image resolution, and demonstrate usable sensitivity from 440 nm to >1000 nm. Sensors and electronics should be functional through integrated doses of >1 MRad, with functionality up to 100 MRad preferred. Signal and power over Ethernet (PoE) is desirable. Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov f. Accelerator Control and Diagnostics As accelerator facilities advance in their capabilities, it is important that diagnostics and controls keep pace. Applications are sought to develop advanced beam diagnostics for concepts and devices that provide high speed measurements, real-time monitoring, and readout of particle beam intensity, position, emittance, polarization, luminosity, transverse profile, longitudinal phase space, time of arrival, and energy. More specifically: For facilities that produce high average power beams, applications are sought for 1. measurement devices/systems for cw beam currents in the range 0.01 to 100 A, with very high precision (<10-4) and short integration times; 2. non-intercepting beam diagnostics for stored proton/ion beams, and/or for ampere class electron beams; and 3. devices/systems that measure the emittance of intense (>100 kW) CW ion beams For heavy ion linear accelerator beam facilities, applications are sought for 1. beam diagnostics for ion beams with intensities less than 107 nuclei/second over a broad energy range up to 400 MeV/u (an especially challenging region is for intensities of 102 to 105 with beam energy from 25 keV to 1 MeV/nucleon); 2. diagnostics for time-dependent, multicomponent, interleaved heavy ion beams. The diagnostic system must separate time-dependent constituents (total period for switching between beams >10 ms), where one species is weaker than the other, and is ~5% of a 30 - 100 ms cycle. The more intense beam would account for the remainder. Proposed solutions which work over a subset of the total energy range are acceptable; 3. on-line, minimally interceptive systems for measurement of beam contaminant species or components. (Energy range of primary ion species should be 500 keV/nucleon to 2 MeV/nucleon.); and 4. advanced diagnostic methods and devices for fast detection (e.g. < 10 us) of stray beam loss for low energy heavy ion beams (e.g. ions heavier than argon at energies above 1 MeV/nucleon and below 100 MeV/nucleon) to facilitate accelerator machine protection. 5. High-sensitivity non-intercepting BPMs for heavy ion Re-Accelerators for ion beamlines that transport pulse-averaged currents >1 epA up to 100 enA. Systems should demonstrate spatial resolution <1 mm in both horizontal and vertical planes over apertures >50 mm diameter, and provide phase measurement for highly bunched beams in the 20-100 MHz range with resolution <1-degree; and 6. Digital Data Acquisition Control Systems Integration: High rate digital DAQ and nuclear electronics signal processing systems are sought for integration with particle identification detector networks in high flux beamlines. Systems should be integrable with SCADA controls systems (eg. EPICS) and provide control surfaces for digitally implemented components such as constant fraction discriminators, scalers, and multi-channel analyzers. Single channel processing and readout rates should exceed 1e5 pps. For accelerator controls, applications are sought to develop: 1. A Webkit application framework to enable the development of data visualization and controls tools; and 2. software applications for collection, visualization, and analysis of post-mortem data from beam line data acquisition and storage devices. Applications to this subtopic should indicate familiarity with complex accelerator systems and the interfaces between the beamline diagnostics and the control systems in use at large accelerator installations. That could also include smaller accelerators like those at Texas A&M's Cyclotron Institute, TUNL at Duke University, and tandem accelerator facilities supported by the National Science Foundation at universities like Notre Dame and Ohio University. For applications involving software, open-source solutions are strongly encouraged. Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov g. Magnet Development for NP facilities A full utilization of the discovery potential of the EIC will require a full-acceptance detector system that can provide detection of reaction products scattered at small angles with respect to the incident beams over a wide momentum range. In general, NP's other high beam power facilities have similar needs for their beamline magnets. Applications are sought for hardware developments to reduce the production costs of these magnets and to the supporting subsystems. 1. cost-effective materials and manufacturing techniques for interaction region or other beamline magnets, including components for an integrated cold magnet assembly such as support systems, compact cold to warm transitions, and cold BPMs; and 2. high efficiency cooling methods and cryogenic systems; and more efficient, lower cost power supplies for such magnets. Applications must clearly indicate how Phase I research and development will result in a working prototype or method that will be completed by the end of Phase II. The prototype or method must be suitable for testing in a nuclear physics application and/or at a nuclear physics accelerator facility. Applications not meeting this requirement will be considered nonresponsive and will not undergo merit review. Questions Contact: Michelle Shinn, Michelle.Shinn@science.doe.gov h. Other In addition to the specific subtopics listed above, the Department invites applications in other areas that fall within the scope of the topic description above.
