Search

The central thread of this thesis describes the testing and commissioning of the optical fibre beam-loss monitor (oBLM) for use at the Australian Synchrotron. The four 125 m long silica fibres that form the sensitive detectors of the oBLM are installed on the Aus- tralian Synchrotron and provide complete baseline coverage of the accelerator, from the electron gun to the end of the storage ring. This configuration provided a range of testing environments in which to characterise the oBLM and investigate potential use cases. The results of these procedures demonstrated that the oBLM was able to objectively discern losses above 200 fC or approximately 10^6 electrons. The timing resolution as averaged from measurements using multiple fibres at several loss locations was determined to be 1.22 +/- 0.19 ns at FWHM across the working range of the fibres. When the oBLM is operated in time of flight mode this corresponds to a spatial resolution of 0.13 +/- 0.02 m, which is smaller than the average component spacing of lattice elements at the Australian Synchrotron and demonstrates that the oBLM is capable of attributing losses to specific errant devices. Potential and productive use cases of the oBLM were then explored and a range of operational techniques were developed, after which the oBLM was integrated into the injection efficiency monitoring and optimisation system. Where it was used, in time of flight mode, to characterise spontaneous losses along the length of the Australian Synchrotron injection and storage ring systems. The diagnostic information it provided from these measurements was employed in the tuning of the injection system and as a consequence the injection efficiency between the linac and booster ring was increased by 60 %. Based on the findings of this thesis an optimised configuration, that best enables the oBLM to address the usage scenarios identified, was created and presented in this thesis.