School of Medicine
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Sami Gamal-Eldin Tantawi
Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Emeritus
BioFor over a decade I have advocated for dedicated research efforts on the basic physics of room temperature high gradient structures and new initiatives for the associated RF systems. This required demanding multidisciplinary collaboration to harness limited resources. The basic elements of the research needed to be inclusive to address not only the fundamentals of accelerator structures but also the fundamentals of associated technologies such as RF manipulation and novel microwave power sources. These basic research efforts were not bundled with specific developments for an application or a general program. The emerging technologies promise a broad, transformational impact.
With this underlying philosophy in mind, in 2006 the US High Gradient Research Collaboration for which I am the spokesman was formed. SLAC is the host of this collaboration, which comprises MIT, ANL, University of Maryland and University of Colorado, NRL and a host of SBIR companies. This led to the revitalization of this research area worldwide. The international collaborative effort grew to include KEK in Japan, INFN, Frascati in Italy, the Cockcroft Institute in the UK, and the CLIC team at CERN.
This effort led to a new understanding of the geometrical effects affecting high gradient operations. The collaborative work led to new advances in understanding the gradient limits of photonic band gap structures. Now we have a new optimization methodology for accelerator structure geometries and ongoing research on alternate and novel materials. These efforts doubled the usable gradient in normal conducting high gradient linacs to more than 100 MV/m, thus revitalizing the spread of the technology to other applications including compact Inverse Compton Scattering gamma-ray sources for national security applications, and compact proton linacs for cancer therapy.