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About

R. Todd is a leading expert in plasma deposition and surface engineering for particle accelerator applications, with a primary focus on mitigating electron clouds and resistive heating in high-energy physics machines. His major contributions center on the development of a novel robotic plasma magnetron “mole” for the in-situ coating of long, small-diameter vacuum tubes—a critical innovation for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Todd’s work directly addresses the severe operational challenges of electron cloud buildup and unacceptable ohmic heating in superconducting magnets, which can limit machine upgrades and performance. His most cited paper (2015, 4 citations) details the design and operation of a 50 cm long cathode magnetron mole, while his 2013 studies (3 and 2 citations) describe the technique for depositing thick oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper coatings onto 316LN stainless steel cold bore tubes. These coatings, once scrubbed, exhibit low secondary electron yield (SEY), effectively suppressing electron clouds. Todd’s achievements include pioneering a practical, robotic solution for coating accelerator components that were previously inaccessible, enabling future RHIC upgrades and advancing the field of in-situ vacuum system metallization.