Monte Carlo toolkit for designing and validating step-range-filter spectrometer designs

Area of Science:

• Nuclear spectroscopy
• Computational physics
• Particle detection instrumentation

Background:

• Step-range filter (SRF) spectrometers are crucial for diagnosing charged particle spectra in fusion experiments.
• Accurate validation of SRF designs and analysis methods is essential for reliable experimental data.
• Existing methods may not fully account for instrument response and detector effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a Monte Carlo toolkit for validating SRF spectrometer designs.
• To generate synthetic SRF data that includes realistic CR-39 detector effects.
• To demonstrate the toolkit's utility in validating specific SRF designs and analysis techniques.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing Geant4 for charged particle transport simulations through SRF filters.
• Generating synthetic SRF data incorporating realistic CR-39 detector responses.
• Applying the toolkit to validate a broadband SRF for 3He3He proton spectra and a compact recoil-proton spectrometer (CRS) design.

Main Results:

• The toolkit successfully generates synthetic SRF data accounting for instrument response.
• Validation of a new broadband SRF for the 3He3He proton spectrum was achieved.
• A new analysis method for 3He3He-p SRF data and a calibration technique for DD-p SRF were proposed and validated.

Conclusions:

• The Monte Carlo toolkit provides a robust method for SRF spectrometer design validation.
• The toolkit enables quantification of SRF performance prior to experimental deployment.
• This work facilitates the development of improved spectrometer designs and analysis techniques for fusion research.