As part of the future upgrade of SOLEIL, some technological innovations are necessary in order to be able to achieve the desired performance. Today, one of these innovations becomes a reality!
It is on Easter Monday 2021 that the MIK project team led by Rachid Ben El Fekih achieved a first successful injection of beam in the SOLEIL storage ring using a new non-linear kicker magnet: the MIK (Multipole Injection Kicker).
This MIK magnet is the twin brother of the one already in operation on the 3 GeV storage ring of MAXIV facility in Sweden. Both magnets were designed and manufactured by a joint team of SOLEIL & MAXIV engineers & technicians between 2011 and 2019.
While MAXIV uses the MIK for their daily Top-Up injection (i.e. frequent reinjection of electrons to maintain the stored current constant), the MIK at SOLEIL will be mainly used to test various Top-Up injections schemes that are foreseen for the future upgrade of SOLEIL. Many sessions are already planned this year to continue measuring the performance of the magnet itself and assessing the feasibility and efficiency of these new Top-Up injection schemes.
The use of MIK magnets in the next generation of storage rings (so-called fourth generation) is one of the keystones in design Top-Up injection for these machines. These MIK magnets must allow transparent Top-Up injection, i.e. the stored beam must not be perturbated by the injection process, unlike the traditional scheme using a four dipole kicker bump. Thus, the photon beam stability on the experimental stations is improved while injecting with a MIK, which is a strong requirement for these future machines. Capitalizing on its experience in designing MIK magnets, SOLEIL has already been working for over three year on innovative new MIK magnets that would fit the requirements on injecting in the future upgrade of the storage ring.
Congratulations to the main actors on this project who have been working hard these past months towards this success: R. Ben El Fekih, A. Letresor, S. Thoraud, J. Da Silva Castro, P. Monteiro, L. S. Nadolski, R. Ollier, P. Alexandre, as well as all the other contributors and teammates!