Topic #: CW26-T23 · Branch: DOE · Status: Open
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science supports the operation, upgrade, and stewardship of national particle accelerator scientific user facilities [1]. These facilities are critical for driving discoveries across Basic Energy Sciences (BES) [2], High Energy Physics (HEP) [5,6], and Nuclear Physics (NP) [8]. To keep pace with the demanding scientific requirements of fixed-target facilities, next-generation colliders, light sources, and neutron sources; accelerator technology must evolve to be more efficient, compact, and cost-effective. This topic integrates breakthroughs in superconductor materials, magnet engineering, radio frequency (RF) designs, laser drivers, advanced diagnostics, photocathodes, and ultrafast laser technology into a unified R&D pipeline that measurably advance the state of the art (SOTA) in accelerator technologies [9–11]. The goal is to transition high-risk, high-reward laboratory prototypes into commercially viable products that support both the DOE's research facilities and adjacent industrial, medical, and national security markets.
Posted: 10/30/2026 · Opens: 10/30/2026
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science supports the operation, upgrade, and stewardship of national particle accelerator scientific user facilities [1]. These facilities are critical for driving discoveries across Basic Energy Sciences (BES) [2], High Energy Physics (HEP) [5,6], and Nuclear Physics (NP) [8]. To keep pace with the demanding scientific requirements of fixed-target facilities, next-generation colliders, light sources, and neutron sources; accelerator technology must evolve to be more efficient, compact, and cost-effective. This topic integrates breakthroughs in superconductor materials, magnet engineering, radio frequency (RF) designs, laser drivers, advanced diagnostics, photocathodes, and ultrafast laser technology into a unified R&D pipeline that measurably advance the state of the art (SOTA) in accelerator technologies [9–11]. The goal is to transition high-risk, high-reward laboratory prototypes into commercially viable products that support both the DOE's research facilities and adjacent industrial, medical, and national security markets.
Areas of Interest To address these challenges, this topic seeks innovative solutions aligned with the following five priority areas.
a. High-Field Superconducting Magnets and Advanced Conductor Materials, focusing on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire and tape fabrication alongside cryogenic powering.
Goals and Metrics Proposals must address specific technical challenges and demonstrate compliance with targeted performance metrics: • Develop high temperature superconductor (HTS) wires capable of high field usage (>18 T) with J_e ≥ 400 A/mm^2 at 20 T and 4.2 K over continuous lengths ≥1 km. • HTS tapes must maintain I_c uniformity within ±5% over ≥75 m. HTS thin film conductors must exceed J_c ≥ 2 MA/cm^2 at 77 K[4,5].
b. Compact, Combined-Function Magnetic Elements, targeting high-precision permanent magnets for low-emittance lattices and beam transport.
Goals and Metrics Proposals must address specific technical challenges and demonstrate compliance with targeted performance metrics: • Develop combined-function permanent magnet quadrupoles (PMQs) for “Complex Bends” [3] for BES light sources that have a ≥0.5 T dipole and ≥130 T/m gradient in a ≥16 mm aperture with a multipole content ≤0.1% in a ≥3 mm good field region. • PMQs must meet: magnetic center alignment within 15 microns, 30-year radiation stability, and field quality ≤1000 ppm in a ≥3 mm good field region, with ±2% tuning range.
b. High-Efficiency RF Power Sources and Tunable Cavity Technologies, emphasizing cost-effective RF amplifiers, solid-state pulsers, and tunable superconducting radio frequency (SRF) systems.
Goals and Metrics Proposals must address specific technical challenges and demonstrate compliance with targeted performance metrics: • Develop RF sources with ≥50% (SSPAs) or ≥70% (VEDs) efficiency, costing 10 nC longitudinally polarized greater than 90% and quantum efficiency > 2% at ~780 nm for NP facilities[8]. • Develop ultrafast (≤1 ps) target driver lasers producing kilowatt-class power, Strehl > 0.95, at ≥10–20% power efficiency for driving photoemission electron sources, pumpprobe experiments, and parametric sources of MWIR and LWIR[7].
d. Innovations in Accelerator Diagnostics: targeting higher performance, lower cost, and new capabilities for measuring charged particle beams.
Goals and Metrics Proposals must address specific technical challenges and demonstrate compliance with targeted performance metrics:
• Innovations in Accelerator Diagnostics: Develop accelerators diagnostics with improved resolution, speed, and intelligence, including o (1) non-intercepting high precision current measurement in the 10 nA–100 uA range (100 ppm accuracy), o (2) measuring stored Ampere-class beams, o (3) non-intercepting emittance measurement of 100 kW-class ion beams,
o (4) high sensitivity ion beam diagnostics for 1E2–1E7 nuclei/s range at low (25– 1000 keV/N) energies, o (5) fast recovery (40 dB intensity range, and (6) very fast (<10 us) beam loss detectors[8]. • Intelligent diagnostics capable of auto calibration, ranging, denoising, data analysis and reduction, and self-protection are strongly encouraged. • Diagnostics incorporating electronics must be rad-hard to be suitable for accelerator use.
Not of Interest Proposed work is considered out of scope if it only offers incremental engineering advancements without a clear path toward high-impact commercialization or direct relevance to BES, HEP, or NP programs. General-purpose RF sources, lasers, or power supplies that are not usable in accelerator facilities (because they lack key properties such as phase locking, ultra-low phase noise, or pulse formatting) or do not demonstrably advance the SOTA are ineligible.
References 1. DOE Office of Science User Facilities at a Glance, U.S. Department of Energy, https://science.osti.gov/User-Facilities/User-Facilities-at-a-Glance. 2. U.S. Department of Energy, DOE BES Future Electron Sources Workshop, Wang, X., Musumeci, P., et al., 2017, https://science.osti.gov/- /media/bes/pdf/reports/2017/Future_Electron_Source_Worskho%09p_Report.pdf?la=en &hash=9EC02151ABEA24A874721C557D0AA77ECC472E91. 3. Brookhaven National Laboratory, The Concept of Complex Bend, NSLS-II Tech Note 276, Shaftan, T., Smaluk, V., and Wang, G., 2018, https://technotes.bnl.gov/PDF?publicationId=211211. 4. Kesgin, I., Kasa, M., Ivanyushenkov, Y., Welp, U., 2017. High-temperature superconducting undulator magnets, Superconductor Science and Technology, vol. 30, 04LT01, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6668/aa5d48. 5. U.S. Magnet Development Program Roadmap, U.S. Department of Energy, https://science.osti.gov/-/media/hep/pdf/Reports/2020/USMDP-2020-Plan-Updateweb.pdf. 6. RF Accelerator R&D Strategy Roadmap, U.S. Department of Energy, https://science.osti.gov/- /media/hep/pdf/Reports/DOE_HEP_GARD_RF_Research_Roadmap_Report.pdf. 7. Basic Research Needs Workshop on Laser Technology, U.S. Department of Energy, https://science.osti.gov/-/media/ardap/pdf/2024/laser-technology-workshopreport_20240105_final.pdf. 8. 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science, A New Era of Discovery, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, https://science.osti.gov/- /media/np/nsac/pdf/reports/2024/2024-NSAC-LRP-Report_Final.pdf. 9. Riken Nishina Center, 22nd International Conference on Radio-Frequency Superconductivity (SRF 2025), 2025, https://ribf.riken.jp/SRF2025/. 10. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 6th North American Particle Accelerator Conference (NAPAC 2025), 2025, https://proceedings.jacow.org/napac2025/pdf/napac2025_proceedings_volume.pdf. 11. International Particle Accelerator Conference, 17th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC 2026), 2026, https://www.ipac26.org/prepress/pdf/ipac- 26_proceedings_volume.pdf.
Chapter 3: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Topics