Steven Lidia

Senior Physicist and Adjunct Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering

About

  • Joined the laboratory in August 2016
  • Accelerator physics and engineering
  • Contact information

Education and training

  • PhD, Physics, University of California at Davis, 1999

Research

Contemporary and planned accelerator facilities are pushing against several development frontiers. Optimum scientific performance of these facilities requires us to predict and measure the behavior of intense beams. The development of diagnostic techniques and advanced instrumentation allows the accelerator scientist to create and tune beamlines that preserve beam quality measures while allowing for precise manipulation and measurement of the beam’s energy, intensity, trajectory, isotope content, and phase space density and correlations. We utilize sophisticated codes to model the dynamics of multi-component particle beams and their electromagnetic, thermal, and nuclear interactions with materials and devices. We design sensor devices and components that enable us to make specific measurements of beam parameters. These sensors are paired with electronic signal acquisition, analysis, and control systems to provide timely data that permit beam tuning and to monitor beam behavior and beamline performance. These systems are built and tested in the laboratory before commissioning with beams. We work at FRIB and with groups at various accelerator laboratories to develop and implement novel diagnostic instruments to support frontier facilities and the science they produce.

Biography

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s and attended UC Berkeley and UC Davis. For the first 20 years of my career, I worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on accelerator projects supporting synchrotron radiation light sources and free electron lasers, High Energy Physics colliders, and ion beam drivers for high energy density physics applications. My research interests have followed my progression through many areas of contemporary experimental physics and engineering as they pertain to the generation, delivery, and characterization of radiation and particle beams.

How students can contribute as part of my research team

Current projects within the group are centered on measurements to understand the behavior of intense, multi-charge state ion beams; high sensitivity and high-speed sensors and networks for beam loss monitoring; accurate beam profile monitoring and tomography; non-invasive beam profile measurement techniques; prediction and measurement of beam instabilities; and development of electronics, firmware, and software to interface with these sensors. Specific instrumentation developments will enable non-intercepting bunch length and profile measurements, monitors for measuring ion beam contaminant species and diffuse beam halo, and machine learning techniques for integrating loss monitor networks. Recent work has expanded our beam delivery to support industrial users in quantifying the effects of radiation exposure on electronics destined for space-based missions.

Scientific publications