Cockcroft Institute
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Science has underpinned human progress for centuries. It has improved our quality of life and helps us understand our place in the Universe. The days when important breakthroughs could be achieved by a researcher working alone in a laboratory with minimal equipment are long gone. Now, the most important insights in science demand that researchers work in teams, collaborating between universities and laboratories and across national boundaries, often hand-in-hand with expert industrial partners. They also demand the best and most sophisticated equipment.
The Cockcroft Institute reflects these changes. Its purpose is to research, design and develop particle accelerators, machines that can be used to reveal the nature of matter, to probe what happened at the instant the universe was born and to develop new materials and medicines to improve our quality of life. These machines are at the cutting-edge of technology, pushing to the limits our ability to control and understand processes happening at the smallest scales, and at the speed of light. They range from very small instruments built to manipulate a difficult process to large sources of particles to create and probe the innermost workings of atoms. The global economy can afford only a few of these latter machines and so they demand collaboration between multi-national teams of the world's best scientists and engineers.
The Cockcroft Institute - a collaboration between academia, national laboratories, industry and local economy - brings together the best accelerator scientists, engineers, educators and industrialists to conceive, design, construct and use innovative instruments of discovery at all scales and lead the UK's participation in flagship international experiments. It cultures the curiosity of emerging minds via education of the future generation and engages with industrial partners to generate wealth for the community that sustains us.
Established more than a decade ago, the Cockcroft Institute is increasingly focusing its attention on three parallel and complementary activities:
- Contributions to near future scientific frontier facilities based on incremental advances to conventional accelerating technologies
- Ground-breaking research in novel methods of particle acceleration which have the long term potential to yield much more compact types of particle accelerators
- Applications of accelerators to address global challenges in healthcare, security, energy, manufacturing and the environment.
The Cockcroft Institute reflects these changes. Its purpose is to research, design and develop particle accelerators, machines that can be used to reveal the nature of matter, to probe what happened at the instant the universe was born and to develop new materials and medicines to improve our quality of life. These machines are at the cutting-edge of technology, pushing to the limits our ability to control and understand processes happening at the smallest scales, and at the speed of light. They range from very small instruments built to manipulate a difficult process to large sources of particles to create and probe the innermost workings of atoms. The global economy can afford only a few of these latter machines and so they demand collaboration between multi-national teams of the world's best scientists and engineers.
The Cockcroft Institute - a collaboration between academia, national laboratories, industry and local economy - brings together the best accelerator scientists, engineers, educators and industrialists to conceive, design, construct and use innovative instruments of discovery at all scales and lead the UK's participation in flagship international experiments. It cultures the curiosity of emerging minds via education of the future generation and engages with industrial partners to generate wealth for the community that sustains us.
Established more than a decade ago, the Cockcroft Institute is increasingly focusing its attention on three parallel and complementary activities:
- Contributions to near future scientific frontier facilities based on incremental advances to conventional accelerating technologies
- Ground-breaking research in novel methods of particle acceleration which have the long term potential to yield much more compact types of particle accelerators
- Applications of accelerators to address global challenges in healthcare, security, energy, manufacturing and the environment.
Planned Impact
1. Specific benefits to future STFC projects
The Cockcroft Institute (CI) strategy aims to develop fundamental, world-leading expertise in core areas, with direct and indirect benefit to the UK programme and international field. The resulting skill base will underpin the STFC programme in many areas by providing core accelerator expertise and enabling technology.
The core institute competence in frontier machines will have a large impact on the upgrade of STFC collider facilities such as the LHC (e.g the CI initiated and led HL-LHC-UK, 2016-2020), through the delivery of hardware and knowledge. The core institute competence in medical and security accelerators directly addresses the RCUK and STFC thematic agenda. The work in accelerator R&D for medical applications has several potential impacts on diverse communities, notably in the healthcare sector where two UK-based (Manchester, London) hadron therapy centres are being constructed. The third core institute competence in novel acceleration aims to position the institute as internationally competitive in several novel acceleration areas, and world leading in some.
2. UK Healthcare and Industrial Involvement
The CI program has the potential to create impact on an academic, societal and economic level as well as contributing to the training and career advancement of future research leaders in accelerator science and technology. The CI, working in close collaboration with the Christie Hospital, will develop a research beamline currently under construction at their proton therapy centre; this will be a unique facility for both biomedical and accelerator research.
Regarding industrial applications, CI experience in high gradient linacs has enabled novel linacs to be developed for cargo screening and proton therapy/imaging. This has resulted in a collaboration with Rapiscan and e2v, and the development of an industrial linac at Daresbury to be used for other industrial applications such as looking at e-beam treatment of contaminated water. Two CI researchers Alexandrova and Yin were awarded Royal Society of Edinburgh/STFC Enterprise Fellowships, leading to creation of the company D-Beam in December 2015 to provide advanced beam diagnostics. Yin in 2016 is in the process of forming a spin out company THz Power Ltd to commercially exploit millimeter and sub-millimeter source technology.
3. Improving career prospects and training
To date the CI has trained 49 PhD students in accelerator science and technology (not including Strathclyde students). These students have moved into a wide range of positions with 20% working in industry and 37% working in national laboratories. We believe the broad education offered by the CI covering both physics and engineering of accelerators, as well as transferable skills provides our students with a good grounding to thrive outside of academia.
4. Outreach and Communication Activities
We will develop an impact case for Accelerator Science Outreach that uses CI R&D to educate a variety of target audiences outside of the accelerator community. CI is communication led in a number of highly visible accelerator projects and with dedicated support of the Project TEAM at the CI we will pursue an international communication strategy and hold a number of large scale outreach events. Researchers and students from across CI will help communicate Institute activities to different target audiences as identified in the Institute's wider communication plan. All CI PhD students will be trained as STEM Ambassadors and engage with school children via visits to (at least) two local colleges or high schools each and talk about their own experiences and research. The CI will host an annual Outreach Symposium in a large venue, such as the Liverpool Convention Centre, as a scientific outreach event to showcase specific accelerator research areas to a wide audience.
The Cockcroft Institute (CI) strategy aims to develop fundamental, world-leading expertise in core areas, with direct and indirect benefit to the UK programme and international field. The resulting skill base will underpin the STFC programme in many areas by providing core accelerator expertise and enabling technology.
The core institute competence in frontier machines will have a large impact on the upgrade of STFC collider facilities such as the LHC (e.g the CI initiated and led HL-LHC-UK, 2016-2020), through the delivery of hardware and knowledge. The core institute competence in medical and security accelerators directly addresses the RCUK and STFC thematic agenda. The work in accelerator R&D for medical applications has several potential impacts on diverse communities, notably in the healthcare sector where two UK-based (Manchester, London) hadron therapy centres are being constructed. The third core institute competence in novel acceleration aims to position the institute as internationally competitive in several novel acceleration areas, and world leading in some.
2. UK Healthcare and Industrial Involvement
The CI program has the potential to create impact on an academic, societal and economic level as well as contributing to the training and career advancement of future research leaders in accelerator science and technology. The CI, working in close collaboration with the Christie Hospital, will develop a research beamline currently under construction at their proton therapy centre; this will be a unique facility for both biomedical and accelerator research.
Regarding industrial applications, CI experience in high gradient linacs has enabled novel linacs to be developed for cargo screening and proton therapy/imaging. This has resulted in a collaboration with Rapiscan and e2v, and the development of an industrial linac at Daresbury to be used for other industrial applications such as looking at e-beam treatment of contaminated water. Two CI researchers Alexandrova and Yin were awarded Royal Society of Edinburgh/STFC Enterprise Fellowships, leading to creation of the company D-Beam in December 2015 to provide advanced beam diagnostics. Yin in 2016 is in the process of forming a spin out company THz Power Ltd to commercially exploit millimeter and sub-millimeter source technology.
3. Improving career prospects and training
To date the CI has trained 49 PhD students in accelerator science and technology (not including Strathclyde students). These students have moved into a wide range of positions with 20% working in industry and 37% working in national laboratories. We believe the broad education offered by the CI covering both physics and engineering of accelerators, as well as transferable skills provides our students with a good grounding to thrive outside of academia.
4. Outreach and Communication Activities
We will develop an impact case for Accelerator Science Outreach that uses CI R&D to educate a variety of target audiences outside of the accelerator community. CI is communication led in a number of highly visible accelerator projects and with dedicated support of the Project TEAM at the CI we will pursue an international communication strategy and hold a number of large scale outreach events. Researchers and students from across CI will help communicate Institute activities to different target audiences as identified in the Institute's wider communication plan. All CI PhD students will be trained as STEM Ambassadors and engage with school children via visits to (at least) two local colleges or high schools each and talk about their own experiences and research. The CI will host an annual Outreach Symposium in a large venue, such as the Liverpool Convention Centre, as a scientific outreach event to showcase specific accelerator research areas to a wide audience.
Publications
Ries R
(2020)
Superconducting properties and surface roughness of thin Nb samples fabricated for SRF applications
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Rodin V
(2019)
Realistic 3D implementation of electrostatic elements for low energy machines
in Hyperfine Interactions
Rose T
(2020)
Segmented electrostatic trap with inductive, frequency based, mass-to-charge ion determination
in International Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Rothwell B
(2021)
Oxygen Depletion in Proton Spot Scanning: A Tool for Exploring the Conditions Needed for FLASH
in Radiation
Rothwell BC
(2021)
Determining the parameter space for effective oxygen depletion for FLASH radiation therapy.
in Physics in medicine and biology
Rusby D
(2019)
Effect of rear surface fields on hot, refluxing and escaping electron populations via numerical simulations
in High Power Laser Science and Engineering
Rusby D
(2018)
Escaping Electrons from Intense Laser-Solid Interactions as a Function of Laser Spot Size
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Saberi H
(2023)
Radiation reaction and its impact on plasma-based energy-frontier colliders
in Physics of Plasmas
Saini C
(2018)
Probing the impact of energetic argon ions on the structural properties of ZnO:Al/TiO2 heterostructures
in Journal of Applied Physics
Saini C
(2022)
Defect engineered blue photoluminescence in ZnO:Al/TiO2 heterostructures
in Journal of Applied Physics
Sandberg H
(2019)
First use of Timepix3 hybrid pixel detectors in ultra-high vacuum for beam profile measurements
in Journal of Instrumentation
Saressalo A
(2020)
Effect of dc voltage pulsing on high-vacuum electrical breakdowns near Cu surfaces
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Sarri G
(2017)
Spectral and spatial characterisation of laser-driven positron beams
in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Saveliev Y
(2022)
Experimental study of transverse effects in planar dielectric wakefield accelerating structures with elliptical beams
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Saveliev Y
(2020)
First dielectric wakefield experiments at Daresbury Laboratory
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Saveliev Y
(2020)
First dielectric wakefield experiments at Daresbury Laboratory
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Saveliev Y
(2022)
Experimental study of transverse effects in planar dielectric wakefield accelerating structures with elliptical beams
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Sawtell D
(2017)
Mechanisms of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment of BOPP
in Plasma Processes and Polymers
Schnuerer R
(2018)
Development of the LHCb VELO Detector Modules into a Standalone, Non-Invasive Online Beam Monitor for Medical Accelerators
in Instruments
Schuemann J
(2018)
A New Standard DNA Damage (SDD) Data Format
in Radiation Research
Schwab M
(2020)
Visualization of relativistic laser pulses in underdense plasma
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Scott G
(2017)
Diagnosis of Weibel instability evolution in the rear surface density scale lengths of laser solid interactions via proton acceleration
in New Journal of Physics
Scott GG
(2018)
Dual Ion Species Plasma Expansion from Isotopically Layered Cryogenic Targets.
in Physical review letters
Scuderi V
(2020)
TOF diagnosis of laser accelerated, high-energy protons
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Scuderi V
(2017)
Time of Flight based diagnostics for high energy laser driven ion beams
in Journal of Instrumentation
Scullion C
(2017)
Polarization Dependence of Bulk Ion Acceleration from Ultrathin Foils Irradiated by High-Intensity Ultrashort Laser Pulses.
in Physical review letters
Seddon EA
(2017)
Short-wavelength free-electron laser sources and science: a review.
in Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society (Great Britain)
Sedov M
(2019)
Features of the generation of fast particles from microstructured targets irradiated by high intensity, picosecond laser pulses
in Laser and Particle Beams
Seipt D
(2017)
Depletion of Intense Fields.
in Physical review letters
Setiniyaz S
(2021)
Pushing the capture limit of thermionic gun linacs
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Setiniyaz S
(2020)
Implications of beam filling patterns on the design of recirculating energy recovery linacs
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Setiniyaz S
(2021)
Filling pattern dependence of regenerative beam breakup instability in energy recovery linacs
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Setiniyaz S
(2021)
Filling pattern dependence of regenerative beam breakup instability in energy recovery linacs
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Setiniyaz S
(2020)
Implications of beam filling patterns on the design of recirculating energy recovery linacs
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Shalloo R
(2019)
Low-density hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels generated with an axicon lens
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Shalloo R
(2019)
Low-density hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels generated with an axicon lens
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
Shalloo RJ
(2018)
Hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels.
in Physical review. E
Shalloo RJ
(2018)
Hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels.
in Physical review. E
Shi L
(2018)
Beam phase retrieval based on higher order modes in cylindrical superconducting radio frequency cavities
in Review of Scientific Instruments
Shortall J
(2020)
Experimental verification the electron return effect around spherical air cavities for the MR-Linac using Monte Carlo calculation.
in Medical physics
Shortall J
(2020)
Characterizing local dose perturbations due to gas cavities in magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy.
in Medical physics
Shortall J
(2020)
Characterizing local dose perturbations due to gas cavities in magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy.
in Medical physics
Shortall J
(2020)
Experimental verification the electron return effect around spherical air cavities for the MR-Linac using Monte Carlo calculation.
in Medical physics
Shortall J
(2020)
Inter- and intra-fractional stability of rectal gas in pelvic cancer patients during MRIgRT
in Medical Physics
Shortall J
(2019)
Assessing localized dosimetric effects due to unplanned gas cavities during pelvic MR-guided radiotherapy using Monte Carlo simulations
in Medical Physics
Description | 1. First successful operation of an RF crab cavity in a proton accelerator with the HL-LHC collaboration (CERN, 2018) - publication in preparation 2. First acceleration of electrons (to 2 GeV) in a proton driven plasma wakefield accelerator with the AWAKE collaboration (CERN, 2018) - published 3. First successful novel acceleration experiments (plasma and dielectric) at 40 MeV in the CLARA electron linac (Daresbury 2018/19) - publications in preparation 4. Production of 100 MeV protons from a thin foil in a high power laser beam (CLF, RAL, 2018) |
Exploitation Route | 1. HL-LHC machine upgrade at CERN by 2026 2. Development of high energy electron acceleration (100 GeV+) from proton beams at CERN 3. New methods of beam control (de-chirping, deflection & acceleration) for particle accelerators 4. New sources of protons for diverse applications including radiotherapy |
Sectors | Education,Environment,Healthcare,Security and Diplomacy |
URL | https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/awake-successfully-accelerates-electrons |
Description | The Cockcroft Institute's public engagement programme continues to flourish and is described by its international Science Advisory Committee as world leading. The Institute's business and industry programme is evolving and gradually gaining traction with a number of key partners, resulting in a variety of joint collaborative ventures including the support of PhD studentship. |
First Year Of Impact | 2008 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Environment,Healthcare,Security and Diplomacy |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | AWAKE |
Amount | £29,929 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T00181X/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | AWAKE UK - phase II |
Amount | £151,832 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T001941/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | AWAKE-Run 2 |
Amount | £56,687 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T001917/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | BeaPhy |
Amount | £245,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 624854 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | Beam Profile Measurements |
Amount | £400,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Switzerland |
Start |
Description | DITA-IIF |
Amount | £256,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 624890 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | EUCARD 2 (WP4) |
Amount | £36,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 312453 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | EUCARD WP12 RF - Innovative RF Technologies |
Amount | £452,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 227579 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Horizon 2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | EuPRAXIA |
Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 653782 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Horizon 2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | EuroCirCol |
Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 654305 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Horizon 2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | HL-LHC Collimation |
Amount | £122,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Switzerland |
Start |
Description | HL-LHC-UK phase 2 |
Amount | £547,647 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T001968/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | HiLumi-HL-LHC Optics and Beam Dynamics |
Amount | £122,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | High Efficiency Klystrons/LLRF Control and Phase Measurements at XBOX |
Amount | £372,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Switzerland |
Start |
Description | High Luminosity LHC : UK (HL-LHC-UK) |
Amount | £105,460 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/N001575/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2016 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | High Luminosity Upgrade of LHC UK - Phase II |
Amount | £707,213 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T001925/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | LHC Collimation |
Amount | £108,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Switzerland |
Start |
Description | OMA |
Amount | £900 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 675265 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Description | TWEETHER |
Amount | £600,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 644678 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start |
Title | Acceleration of relativistic beams using laser-generated terahertz pulses |
Description | Dataset for the figures contained in the manuscript entitled "Acceleration of relativistic beams using laser-generated terahertz pulses". |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3903506 |
Title | Acceleration of relativistic beams using laser-generated terahertz pulses |
Description | Dataset for the figures contained in the manuscript entitled "Acceleration of relativistic beams using laser-generated terahertz pulses". |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3903505 |
Title | Data for: "Ionization injection in a laser wakefield accelerator subject to a transverse magnetic field" |
Description | This data was produced via full three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations using Osiris code (version 2.0) with the os-stdin files included. The file labelled by the magnitude of external magnetic field in x3 direction, is the initialization file ('os-stdin') used to produce the data. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Description | AWAKE Collaboration at CERN |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Lancaster have contributed to the construction of the 16 MeV electron linac, Liverpool and Manchester have contributed to beam diagnostics. |
Collaborator Contribution | CERN have provided the experimental infrastructure and beam, etc. |
Impact | Still at the very early stages of the envisaged programme. No major results yet. |
Start Year | 2013 |
Description | HL-LHC Collaboration |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Cockcroft Institute scientists are active in several work packages on this project including the Crab Cavities, beam collimation studies and diagnostics. |
Collaborator Contribution | The UK and STFC is contributing about £8M of capital and recurrent funding to this project. |
Impact | The project is ongoing and still at an early stage. The important outputs are still to come. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | LBNF/PIP-II Collaboration |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Preparations for the construction of three high beta superconducting RF cryo-modules for the 800 MeV PIP-II proton linac at Fermilab |
Collaborator Contribution | Module design and project management of the PIP-II international project |
Impact | No outputs yet |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Muon g-2 collaboration |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The Cockcroft Institute has contributed to beam dynamics studies for the experiment. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners have constructed and operated the experiment. |
Impact | The experiment is at an early stage and has not yet produced any significant outputs. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Cockcroft Institute public engagement programme 2009-2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | In the past 2 years more than 20 events have taken place and since the start of this award we estimate that there may have been well over 50 of them. They include public lectures, schools visits, lab tours and demonstrations, and participation in national events such as the Big Bang Show and the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibitions. These events have stimulated numerous questions and discussions, and feedback from schools and the general public indicates growing interest in accelerator science and technology. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016 |
URL | https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/education-and-training/outreach |