Abstract
We consider three types of electron accelerators that can be used for various applications, such as industrial, medical, cargo inspection, and isotope production applications, and that require small- and medium-sized machines, namely classical microtron (CM), race-track microtron (RTM), and multisection linac. We review the principles of their operation, the specific features of the beam dynamics in these machines, discuss their advantages and weak points, and compare their technical characteristics. In particular, we emphasize the intrinsic symmetry of the stability region of microtrons. We argue that RTMs can be a preferable choice for medium energies (up to 100 MeV) and that the range of their potential applications can be widened, provided that the beam current losses are significantly reduced. In the article, we analyze two possible solutions in detail, namely increasing the longitudinal acceptance of an RTM using a higher-order harmonic accelerating structure and improving beam matching at the injection.
Highlights
Since its invention, the pulsed racetrack microtron (RTM) has been the attracting attention of potential users due to the possibility of its use resulting in obtaining an accelerated electron beam of sufficiently high energy using a seemingly simple, compact, and quite economic machine
The number of RTMs built and that are in operation is incomparably less than the number of linear accelerators, which have an average accelerated beam current that is too low for many potential applications
We analyze the problems that led to this situation and outline solutions that are aimed at increasing the average current of RTMs
Summary
The pulsed racetrack microtron (RTM) has been the attracting attention of potential users due to the possibility of its use resulting in obtaining an accelerated electron beam of sufficiently high energy using a seemingly simple, compact, and quite economic machine. Particular emphasis can be of the design geometry in a CM, only one resonator with a moderate electric field strength placed on methods for reducing beam current losses during acceleration by increasing can be installed (see Figure 1a); the synchronous energy gain per turn ∆ is the longitudinal acceptance and matching of the longitudinal beam quite low and is typically equal tothe the better electron rest mass,. CMs are operated at larger value of the synchronous energy gain, which makes it possible to decrease the dimensions of the accelerator slightly This reduces the stability of the resonator operation, and for an energy of tens of MeV, the dimensions of the accelerator and the number of orbits are still large. It is straightforward to obtain electrons of different energies in an RTM by extracting the beam from the different orbits; a review of these extraction schemes can be seen in Ref. [4]
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