Research
Particle Traps
Currently, I am working on beam dynamics simulations and studies on the properties of antiprotons inside the electrostatic traps of the AEgIS experiment.
Ion source
Ion sources play a crucial role in generating ions for various applications, including particle accelerators, electric propulsion systems, and fundamental physics research. As part of my doctoral thesis, I engineered both a line cusp and a ring cusp ion source, meticulously evaluating their performance for specific applications.
Faraday Cups
Faraday Cups serve as charged particle detectors employed across various domains, including particle accelerators, electric thrusters, and mass spectrometers, to gauge beam current in distinct regions. Utilizing an array of Faraday Cups enables the estimation of beam profile and divergence in broad beams. In the course of my doctoral research, I specialized in designing diverse Faraday Cup arrays tailored for assessing the beam profiles of a broad beam multicusp ion source. Additionally, I devised a unique Faraday Cup Array capable of accurately measuring the pure beam current of fast argon ions. This design effectively filters out unwanted primary electrons from the cathode neutralizer, mitigates slow-moving charge exchange ions, and suppresses secondary electrons produced from the Faraday cup surface.
Research collaborations
Carsten P Welsch, Benjamin Rienacker
AEgIS: Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry and Spectroscopy
In the mid-2000s, the ATHENA experiment at CERN was coming to a close, having successfully created cold (i.e. slow) anti-hydrogen atoms for the very first time. Still, there was much research on antimatter left to do. From ATHENA came two new experiments with two different main goals. One of these experiments is the Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, and Spectroscopy, or AEgIS, as a nod back to its predecessor ATHENA. It seeks to measure the effects of Earth's gravitational pull on antimatter in the absence of a magnetic field. In 2008, CERN officially accepted AEgIS as an experiment. From there, AEgIS went along the path to studying the effects of gravity on antihydrogen. One major issue faced so far is the efficiency of antihydrogen production. It has been what much of the research AEgIS has done so far and started in Phase 1 of their research, to effectively use the charge exchange reaction to make a pulsed beam of anti-hydrogen. Previously, antihydrogen could only be produced in a process known as mixing, where antiprotons and positrons are put together in a space, mixed around with magnetic and electric fields. Soon the particles stick together as antihydrogen atoms, and the physicists can explore do their observations. Because AEgIS measures gravity's effects on these antimatter particles, there must be a consistent direction for the particles to travel. The experiment has implemented a technique to make a more controlled and efficient source of antihydrogen, which is known as the charge exchange reaction.