The SOCHI station is designed for irradiating microchips at ion beams extracted from the HILAc. The beam transport channel to the SOCHI station is one of the channels constructed for applied research within the framework of the NICA project.
In autumn 2021, we installed the equipment of the SOCHI station and the transport channel at VBLHEP and upgraded the front part of the beam injection channel into the Booster, the branch line of which is the SOCHI channel. On the night of December 22-23, 2021, we performed the first cycle of launching the equipment of the irradiation station and the transport channel. We commissioned the magnet system of the channel. The beam was transported to the SOCHI station, where it was registered by several detectors, including the MCP ionization monitor, phosphor and scintillation detectors.
The commissioning cycle at the SOCHI channel will be continued when we complete the first run with operating jointly two NICA accelerators – the Booster and the Nuclotron. The run is scheduled to begin in January 2022.
Alexey Tuzikov