Review of superconducting booster linacs

Abstract

Several superconducting boosters have been built and more are planned or under construction. These all use a number of independently phased resonators to permit acceleration of a wide variety of ion masses. For heavy ions, vhf frequencies are involved, and operation of the superconductors at 4.3 K, the normal boiling point of He, is practical. (Because fundamental losses in superconductors depend on frequency, some electron accelerators using much higher frequencies require colder resonators.) For boosters the resonator technology has evolved toward the use of quarter wave resonators with straight loading arms. The superconducting material is either niobium or lead. The latter is deposited as a film on copper, while the former may be sheet metal, may be bonded to copper, or may be (in principle) applied as a film on copper. The trade-offs involved and the successes of the various techniques are discussed. The rf must be controlled accurately both with regard to amplitude and phase. Because of the high unloaded Q of the resonators, additional loading is provided at some temperature well above that of the superconductor, in order to increase the bandwidth to a manageable point. Most boosters provide active control of phase by shifting the driving phase, although at least one system uses a frequency switching technique. Cross talk between independent resonator control systems must be avoided. The cryogenic systems have evolved toward a system based on a large helium refrigerator using turbine expansion and providing gas cooling to heat shields. Conservative design provides excess capacity beyond the expected requirements of the accelerator. Cryogenic distribution must be done carefully to avoid losses, and the system should be designed with capacity to match that of anticipated upgrades of the refrigerator. Most boosters use an approximately periodic focusing system with radial phase advance near 90° per unit cell. At Legnaro, however, waist to waist focusing is planned between diagnostic boxes placed between each cryostat. The pertinent operating parameters of boosters that are presently operating, are under construction, and are planned are presented.