A review on application of laser tracker in precision positioning metrology of particle accelerators

The discoveries made in the twentieth-century include attempts to understand the origin of the universe, constituents of matter, enigmas of biological reactions, etc. could be possible mainly due to the extensive development in the field of particle accelerators. All the particle accelerators, irrespective of their scientific application, need precise alignment of various components for proper functioning. Survey and alignment activities in particle accelerators comprise precise positioning of various components, mainly magnets within micrometric tolerances over a length of hundreds of meters relative to the reference position as defined by the beam physicists in an arbitrary plane. The practice of specialized techniques and instruments are compulsory to meet these requirements. Due to the advancement in optical technology, low-cost computation, and fast data acquisition, laser trackers are commonly used in the field of large-scale dimensional metrology (LSDM). The area of LSDM also includes survey and alignment of the components at their nominal value with a precision of better than +/- 100 mu m over a distance ranging from hundreds of meters to a few kilometres in particle accelerators. In the present study, the use and applicability of laser trackers in various precision positioning activities applicable to particle accelerators are presented in detail.