Residual-Gas-Ionization Beam Profile Monitors in RHIC

Four ionization profile monitors (IPMs) in RHIC measure vertical and horizontal beam profiles in the two rings by measuring the distribution of electrons produced by beam ionization of residual gas. During the last three years both the collection accuracy and signal/noise ratio have been improved. An electron source is mounted across the beam pipe from the collector to monitor microchannel plate (MCP) aging and the signal electrons are gated to reduce MCP aging and to allow charge replenishment between single-turn measurements. Software upgrades permit simultaneous measurements of any number of individual bunches in the ring. This has been used to measure emittance growth rates on six bunches of varying intensities in a single store. Also the software supports FFT analysis of turn-by-turn profiles of a single bunch at injection to detect dipole and quadrupole oscillations.