Design of the Electron-Beam Collimator for the Electron-Ion Collider

Abstract

The design and optimization of a beam collimator for the Electron Storage Ring (ESR) of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) are presented. The collimator must efficiently intercept stray beam particles while maintaining acceptable beam coupling impedance, surviving rapid accidental beam impacts, and withstanding steady-state beam-induced heating. An integrated design approach combining beam-loss tracking, electromagnetic-shower simulations, thermomechanical analysis, and impedance calculations is developed and benchmarked against published simulations and beam-impact experiments. A comparison of candidate absorber materials identifies Al2219-T62 as providing a favorable balance of beam-impact robustness, thermal and electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and ultra-high-vacuum compatibility. For the ultimate ESR bunch charge of 28 nC at 10 GeV, the Al2219-T62 jaw remains below the adopted practical thermal-shock threshold for approximately 50 fully intercepted bunches and below the localized melting threshold for approximately 100 bunches under the reference impact conditions considered. These results provide an engineering input to the machine-protection requirements, for which a complete protection response within several machine turns is required. Optimization of the absorber-tip length yields a 70 mm tapered jaw that balances collimation performance, beam-impact robustness, and impedance. The resulting design maintains acceptable impedance margins and remains below both the yield and ultimate tensile strengths under a conservative 3.6 kW beam-induced heating scenario. The results establish a baseline ESR collimator design and a benchmarked methodology for evaluating collimator robustness in high-current electron storage rings.