Simple low-frequency beam pickup

Detection of the field induced by a beam outside of the beam pipe can be used as a beam diagnostic. Wires placed in longitudinal slots in the outside wall of the beam pipe can be used as a beam pickup. This has a very small beam-coupling impedance and avoids complications of having a feedthrough. The signal can be reasonably high at low frequencies. We present a field waveform at the outer side of a beam pipe, obtained as a result of calculations and measurements. We calculate the beam-coupling impedance due to a long longitudinal slot in the resistive wall and the signal induced in a wire placed in such a slot and shielded by a thin screen from the beam. These results should be relevant for impedance calculations of the slot in an antechamber and for slots in the PEP-II distributed ion pump screens. The design of the low-frequency beam position monitor is very simple. It can be used in storage rings, synchrotron light sources, and free electron lasers, like LINAC coherent light source.