What is ExcelOptics ?

ExcelOptics is a set of two excel sheets which allows the computation of linear transport of ultrarelativistic charged particles. It allows the computation and optimization of beamlines including :

  • transfer matrices;
  • beta function;
  • phase advance;
  • dispersion function; &
  • beam sizes and divergences.

For circular type lattices , it computes :

  • tunes;
  • emittances;
  • damping times;
  • chromaticities;
  • bunch length;
  • energy spread;
  • resonance excitation; &
  • lifetimes.

Some tracking can be done using a DLL (PC) or a Shared Library (Mac) included in the distribution.

Strength of ExcelOptics

  • The source is transparent.
  • The computation can be easily customized by the user.
  • Optimization of the lattice over one or several arbitrary user-defined parameters with several constraints is made using the Excel solver. This is probably the the most astonishing feature that is absent from most other optics codes. One can design a ring lattice and optimize the sextupole with imposed chromaticities as well as with a minimisation of the systematic sextupolar type resonance in a very short time and flexible way.

Weakness of ExcelOptics

  • It is yet another optics code and there are many others on the market.
  • At present the user interface for tracking is quite poor.
  • If you are not already a user of Microsoft Excel then forget about ExcelOptics.
  • There is no cell protection preventing the user from accidentally removing some important computation.

Required Configuration

You need one of the following two configurations :

  1. PC under windows 9x/Me/NT4/2000/Xp with Microsoft Excel Version older than 97
  2. A Mac under MacOS9.x with Microsoft Excel Version older than 99. Most of it should work under MacOSX but this has not been tested.

Download

You can Download ExcelOptics distribution Here, Have a look at the "Readme.txt" file. The file "BeamLine.xls" is an example and a tutorial to simulate the optics of a transfer line. The file "Ring.xls" is an example and a tutorial to simulate the optics of a periodic circular machine.

The Optics of the ESRF accelerators and transfer lines are availble here in a slightly different format than in the distribution. It contains :

  1. TL1 : Transfer Line from the Linac to the Booster Synchrotron
  2. SY : Booster Synchrotron
  3. TL2 : Transfer Line from the Booster Synchrotron to the Storage Ring
  4. SR : Storage Ring

If you like this code or you want to give some feedback, send an e-mail to L Farvacque, ESRF