Design, development and characterization of tunable Permanent Magnet Quadrupole for Drift Tube Linac

Abstract

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay is developing LEHIPA (Low Energy High Intensity Proton Accelerator) as pre-injector for 1 GeV proton accelerator for proposed ADSS (Accelerator Driven Sub-critical reactor System). LEHIPA is 20 MeV, 30 mA room temperature accelerator and consists of RFQ (Radio Frequency Quadrupole) and DTL (Drift Tube Linac) as major accelerating structures. The RF (Radio Frequency) design of DT (Drift Tube) of DTL aimed at maximizing the shunt impedance; this demands the size (transverse) of DTs to be minimal. The width of the DT is governed by the β of the particle and trade-off between transit time factor and effective accelerating voltage in the DT gap. The availability of limited volume in DTs for housing magnetic quadrupole has motivated the use of permanent magnets for generating the quadrupole field, as they have high magnetic energy density when compared to conventional electromagnets. With usage of permanent magnets, joule heating is eliminated, this helps in limiting the heat load. DTL has copious microwave heat with heat flux as large as 10 W/cm2 at certain locations. The beam dynamics requires uniformity of integral magnetic field gradient of PMQ (Permanent Magnet Quadrupole) to be better than ±0.5% with nominal value of 2.05 T. Further the drift tubes which houses these PMQs have microwave heat generation on outer surface which ranges from 5 kW to 8 kW depending on the size of the DT. This heat is required to be removed, not doing so would result in resonant frequency detuning in DTL cavity and enhanced temperature would deteriorate the strength of permanent magnets of the PMQ, thereby compromising their focal length. The drift tube has hydraulic circuit for microwave heat removal. This paper describes the magnetic design of the PMQ using Sm2Co17 rare earth permanent magnets. Paper discusses the magnetic design for optimizing integral magnetic field gradient (integral Gdl) uniformity. A novel magnetic field tuning technique is used for tuning the integral magnetic field gradient to required value. Comprehensive magnetic tuning and characterization scheme is presented which relates the measured magnetic moment of the permanent magnets, un-tuned integral Gdl and pole length to the required integral Gdl. Based on this scheme thirty six PMQ embedded drift tubes have been developed. Paper also details the results of characterization of twenty PMQs which forms part of 10 MeV to 15 MeV DTL. The scheme used for tuning integral magnetic field gradient is universal and can be implemented in similar permanent magnets quadrupoles and other permanent magnet based systems.