Development of a high-current microwave ion source for proton linac application systems

Abstract

A microwave hydrogen ion source was developed to improve reliability, and to increase operation time of proton linac application systems. The ion source needs no filament in the discharge chamber, which leads to better reliability and less maintenance time. The developed source produced a maximum hydrogen ion beam current of 70 mA (high current density of 360 mA/cm2, beam energy of 30 keV) with a 5 mm diam extraction aperture and 1.2 kW microwave power. The proton fraction was increased with an increase in rf power and reached around 90% at 1 kW. Measured 90% beam normalized emittance was 0.4 π mm mrad. Rise times of rf power and beam current to 90% of the final values were about 30 and 35 μs, respectively, at a pulse operation mode with 400 μs pulse width and 100 Hz repetition rate. The dynamic range of beam currents was enlarged (3–63 mA) in the pulse mode with a modified rf wave form to assist ignition of microwave discharge. These performance parameters will be desirable for pulse operation accelerator applications like proton therapy systems. A long time operation stability (150 h) was confirmed with a beam current of 51 mA; change in the current was 2%.