Radio Frequency Quadrupole Linac Research Articles

Time structure of an accelerated beam using a radio-frequency quadrupole linac with direct plasma injection scheme

In direct plasma injection scheme, the relation between the ion current from a laser ion source and the accelerated beam current by a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac was studied by a series of the following analyses. First, ion current at beam extraction was calculated from measured plasma parameters using a scaling law. Second, the beam emittance at the entrance of acceleration electrode region was evaluated by the simulation of the ion extraction out of the ion source plasma using the result of the first calculation. Last, the accelerated beam current could be reproduced by the simulation of beam acceleration using the results of the second. The second calculation revealed the time variation in the injected beam parameter to the RFQ linac. Then it was proved that the time structure of the accelerated beam was different from that of the injection beam because the degree of the matching between the injected beam emittance and the RFQ acceptance varied with time.

Drift distance survey in direct plasma injection scheme for high current beam production

In a laser ion source, plasma drift distance is one of the most important design parameters. Ion current density and beam pulse width are defined by plasma drift distance between a laser target and beam extraction position. In direct plasma injection scheme, which uses a laser ion source and a radio frequency quadrupole linac, we can apply relatively higher electric field at beam extraction due to the unique shape of a positively biased electrode. However, when we aim at very high current acceleration such as several tens of milliamperes, we observed mismatched beam extraction conditions. We tested three different ion current at ion extraction region by changing plasma drift distance to study better extraction condition. In this experiment, C(6+) beam was accelerated. We confirmed that matching condition can be improved by controlling plasma drift distance.

Design and development of a radio frequency quadrupole linac postaccelerator for the Variable Energy Cyclotron Center rare ion beam project

A four-rod type heavy-ion radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac has been designed, constructed, and tested for the rare ion beam (RIB) facility project at VECC. Designed for cw operation, this RFQ is the first postaccelerator in the RIB beam line. It will accelerate A/q < or = 14 heavy ions coming from the ion source to the energy of around 100 keV/u for subsequent acceleration in a number of Interdigital H-Linac. Operating at a resonance frequency of 37.83 MHz, maximum intervane voltage of around 54 kV will be needed to achieve the final energy over a vane length of 3.12 m for a power loss of 35 kW. In the first beam tests, transmission efficiency of about 90% was measured at the QQ focus after the RFQ for O(5+) beam. In this article the design of the RFQ including the effect of vane modulation on the rf characteristics and results of beam tests will be presented.

Laser ion source: A direct plasma injection scheme for two-beam type interdigital-H radio frequency quadrupole linac

We developed a laser ion source using a direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) as an injection system for a two-beam type radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac with an interdigital-H (IH) type cavity. The laser ion source in the DPIS is directly connected to the RFQ cavity without the low energy beam transport system. We achieved a high current C(2+) beam above 60 mA per beam channel from the ion source. The beam will be injected to the two-beam type IH-RFQ linac, and the linac will generate a beam current of approximately 44 mA per beam channel.

Design and construction of a compact microwave proton source for a proton linac

A 100 MeV, 20 mA proton linear accelerator is being developed by the Proton Engineering Frontier Project at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. 20 MeV acceleration system using radio frequency quadrupole and drift tube linac was already developed and has been tested. To operate this acceleration system with a long time, more reliable proton source is needed. A compact microwave proton source was proposed and has been designed and constructed as a prototype ion source for the 100 MeV proton linear accelerator. The design of microwave power injection system is based on the microwave proton injector at LANL and CEA. The wave power from a 2.45 GHz, 2 kW magnetron source is introduced into a compact plasma chamber with 7 cm diameter and 5 cm length through a standard tapered, double-ridged waveguide (WRD250) and a quartz window. The microwave power supply is installed on high voltage platform. Axial magnetic fields up to 1 kG can be provided with a water-cooled solenoid coil. A single-hole three electrode extraction system is designed for an extraction current up to 30 mA at a 50 kV extraction voltage. The design and initial operations of the proton source are presented.

Particle simulation for direct plasma injection in a radio frequency quadrupole matching section

We have been investigating direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) for high-intensity heavy-ion beam acceleration. In the DPIS, laser-produced plasma is directly injected into a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac. To study the beam dynamics of the ion injection in the DPIS, we tracked particle motions in the RFQ matching section using three-dimensional particle-in-cell method. As a result of the numerical simulation, we found that the electrostatic field generated by the extraction electrode reduces the transmission efficiency. To avoid the radially defocusing force, the input beam into the RFQ has to be initially convergent. In the DPIS, further optimization of the plasma density is required for better matching.

Studies of emittance of multiply charged ions extracted from high temperature superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source, PKDELIS

For the high current injector project at Inter University Accelerator Centre, a high temperature superconducting electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source, PKDELIS, would provide the high charge state ions. The emittance of the ECR ion source is an important parameter to design further beam transport system and to match the acceptances of the downstream radio frequency quadrupole and drift tube linac accelerators of the high current injector. The emittance of the analyzed beam of PKDELIS ECR source has been measured utilizing the three beam size technique. A slit and two beam profile monitors positioned at fixed distances from each other were used to measure the beam size. The digitized beam profiles have been analyzed to determine the emittance of various multiply charged ions. The variation of emittance with gas mixing, ultrahigh frequency power, and extraction energy are discussed in this presentation.

Current Status and Performance of the J-PARC Accelerators

J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) is a multi-purpose research facility for materials and life sciences, nuclear and particle physics, and nuclear engineering with extremely high power proton beams of 1 MW. The accelerator complex consists of a 400-MeV linac, a 3-GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), and a 50-GeV Main Ring synchrotron (MR). Its goals are to provide MW-class beams at 3 GeV and at several 10 GeV, while it is a challenge to localize and suppress beam loss to the level to allow hands-on maintenance of accelerator components. The RCS scheme is adopted to realize them, which is advantageous over conventional Accumulation Ring (AR) regarding less beam loss problems due to lower beam current and easier construction and operation of a linac. RCS, however, required various challenging technologies such as ceramic ducts to reduce eddy current effects, high field Radio Frequency (RF) system, and paint injection technique (an injection scheme to reduce phase space density of the beam) to reduce space charge effects. The linac has also unique technologies to minimize beam loss, such as compact electromagnet Drift Tube Quadrupoles (DTQ’s) to control beam envelopes precisely, and a fast beam suspending system in Machine Protection System (MPS) with Radio Frequency Quadrupole linac (RFQ). The beam commissioning of the linac started in Nov. 2006, and its design energy of 181 MeV in the first construction phase was achieved in Jan. 2007. RCS beam commissioning started in Sep. 2007 and the beam was accelerated to the designed energy of 3 GeV in Oct. 2007. MR beam commissioning started in May 2008, and the beam acceleration to 30 GeV was established in Dec. 2008. The first neutron and muon beams were produced in May and Sep. 2008, respectively, at Materials and Life science experimental Facility (MLF). The linac commissioning has resulted in very stable beam with short down time. RCS commissioning quickly achieved beam acceleration and extraction, and paint injections are being studied intensively. RCS recorded the highest beam power of 0.21 MW in Sep. 2008 with beam loss well localized at the collimators. The linac beam energy will be upgraded to 400 MeV with Annular Coupled Structure linac (ACS) in order to increase the beam power to 1 MW. In the second construction phase, upgrade of the linac with 600-MeV Super-Conducting Linac (SCL) for Accelerator-Driven nuclear waste transmutation System (ADS) and upgrade of MR energy from 30 to 50 GeV are planned.Copyright © 2009 by ASME

Modal response of 4-rod type radio frequency quadrupole linac

This paper deals with the analysis and experimental study of natural frequencies of vibration of a 4-rod type radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerator. The eigenvalue analysis of the structure has been done both analytically (multispan beam concept) as well as using blocked Lanczos eigenvalue finite element solver with an ability to extract the rigid body modes. This has been done in the mechanical design phase to find the level of agreement between the output of simplified analytical analysis results and the output of a commercial finite element method (FEM) solver, since a full scale RFQ structure is too complex to handle analytically. Experimental validation of the analysis results has been done on the physical 1.7 m RFQ at the installation site. The experimental data obtained were later analyzed and found to be in close agreement with the predicted frequencies in the lower frequency ranges. It gets more and more deviated in the higher frequency ranges. Also some frequencies were observed during experimentation, which were not found in the finite element analysis results. The source of those frequencies are to be further investigated as it may play a predominant role in the design high quality factor beam line cavities for higher operational efficiency.

Development of the Resonant-Frequency Monitoring System for the PEFP DTL

Development of the Resonant-Frequency Monitoring System for the PEFP DTL Young-Gi Song, Han-Sung Kim, Hyeok-Jung Kwon and Yong-Sub Cho Proton Engineering Frontier Project, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353 (Received 4 September 2008) A 20-MeV, 20-mA proton linac, which is comprised of a 50-keV proton injector, a 3-MeV radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) and 20-MeV drift tube linac (DTL), has been developed in the Proton Engineering Frontier Project (PEFP). For a stable and e cient acceleration of a proton beam, the resonant frequency of the DTL cavities should be matched to the high power RF driving frequency. In PEFP DTL, a resonant control cooling system (RCCS) will be used to control the resonant frequency. The main objective of this study is to measure and transfer the resonance frequency error to the RCCS by measuring the RF eld pro le in the cavity. The algorithm derived by using a state-space model is used to represent the resonant frequency error. The control application program was developed with a VME-based PCI mezzanine card (PMC) extended board and a multitasking method based on the VxWorks. We tested the algorithm, the control board and the application program by using a dummy cavity. In this paper, the algorithm, the system con guration and the test results are presented. PACS numbers: 29.17.+w

Design of two-beam-type IH-RFQ linac

In order to obtain high-intensity ion beams from a linear accelerator (linac) in a stable manner, it is necessary to suppress the defocusing force due to the space charge effect. The defocusing force is extremely strong in low-energy and high-intensity beams. Therefore, high-intensity ion beam acceleration in the low-energy region is one of the most difficult conditions to achieve. One solution is to suppress the defocusing force by dividing the high-intensity beam into several beams. Thus, a multibeam Interdigital-H (IH)-type Radio Frequency Quadrupole (IH-RFQ) linac has been proposed for a heavy ion inertial fusion (HIF) injector system. In particular, we have been developing a two-beam-type IH-RFQ cavity as a prototype of the multibeam-type IH-RFQ. This prototype has the capability of accelerating charged particles to a mass ratio ( q/ A) greater than 1 6 from 5 up to 60 keV/u. In the design, the expected total output current is about 87 mA for the total input beam current of 120 mA.

Design study of a multibeam type IH-RFQ linac to accelerate high intensity and low energy heavy ion beams

A multibeam Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) linac with an Interdigital H-mode (IH) structure has been developed for high intensity heavy-ion beam acceleration. The defocusing force of space charge effect is proportional to the beam current and to the inverse square of the beam velocity. Therefore, multibeam acceleration is an attractive scheme to suppress this in the low energy region. The electromagnetic field distribution and the beam dynamics were studied for a prototype. We discuss the configuration of the multibeam IH-RFQ linac and the results of these simulations.

Direct plasma injection scheme with beam extraction in a radio frequency quadrupole linac cavity

Direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) is a recently developed idea about beam injection into a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac to obtain high current pulsed heavy ion beam. Since a laser ion source is directly connected to an RFQ linac, a low energy beam transport is not needed. An ion beam is extracted at the edge of the cavity. We shifted the extraction position in the RFQ cavity to improve the beam loss problem due to beam diverging before arriving at the entrance of the RFQ electrode region. In this scheme, ion beam is extracted at the entrance of the RFQ electrode region and the extracted beam is immediately captured by a rf quadrupole electric field. A plasma electrode is inserted in the accelerator resonant cavity. It is required to avoid serious effect on the acceleration characteristics of the RFQ linac. The rf properties were measured using a network analyzer to verify the effect. The shifts of resonant frequency were negligibly small by inserting the electrode. The measurements of the electric field distribution along the beam axis in the RFQ linac showed that the plasma electrode had little effect on it. The result of beam acceleration experiment showed that the beam current was increased by about 20%. It was confirmed that the beam loss was reduced by this scheme.

Ag ion generation irradiated by Nd:YAG laser onto solid target for use of direct plasma injection scheme

Direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) is an acceleration scheme which consists of laser ion source and a radio frequency quadrupole linac (RFQ) linac for high current heavy ion acceleration. With this scheme, over 60 mA of carbon and aluminum beam was achieved at the RFQ exit. We are planning to accelerate Ag ions as a heavier material than used previously. Ag plasma properties using Nd:YAG laser (2.3 J/6 ns) were measured toward the acceleration with DPIS. The results showed that the highest ion yield was obtained at Ag(15+). Based on these results, multicharged Ag ion transportation inside RFQ was simulated and the expected current at the exit of RFQ was over 14 mA for Ag(15+) using the RFQ dedicated for Ag acceleration.

Development of an all-permanent-magnet microwave ion source equipped with multicusp magnetic fields for high current proton beam production

An all-permanent-magnet (APM) microwave hydrogen ion source was developed to reduce the size and to simplify structure of a conventional solenoid coil microwave ion source developed for reliability improvement of high current proton linac application systems. The difficulty in developing the APM source was sensitive dependence of the source performance on axial magnetic field in the microwave discharge chamber. It was difficult to produce high current proton beam stably without precise tuning of the magnetic field using solenoid coils. We lowered the sensitivity using multicusp magnetic fields for plasma confinement at the discharge chamber sidewall of the source. This enabled stable high current proton beam production with the APM microwave ion source with no tuning coil. The water cooling and the power supply for the coils are not necessary for the APM source, which leads to better reliability and system simplification. The outer diameter of the APM source was around 300 mm, which was 20% lower than the coil source. The APM source produced a maximum hydrogen ion beam current of 65 mA (high current density of 330 mA/cm(2), proton ratio of 87%, and beam energy of 30 keV) with a 5 mm diameter extraction aperture, pulse width of 400 micros, and 20 Hz repetition rate at 1.3 kW microwave power. This performance is almost the same as the best performances of the conventional coil sources. The extracted ion beams were focused with electrostatic five-grid lens to match beam to acceptance of radio-frequency quadrupole linacs. The maximum focused beam current through the orifice (5 mm radius) and the lens was 36 mA and the 90% focused beam half-width was 1-2 mm.

A 57-MHz CW RFQ for the AEBL Project

The Advanced Exotic Beam Laboratory (AEBL) at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) will provide a research facility for studies of nuclear phenomena by using beams of short-lived isotopes for research in the nature of nucleonic matter, the origin of the elements, tests of the Standard Model along with applications in medicine, industry, and other applied physics research. The proposed design of the AEBL driver linac evolved from the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) project. It is a CW 850 MV linac capable of accelerating uranium ions up to 200 MeV/u and protons to 570 MeV with 400 kW beam power. The first section of the linac is a 57 MHz pseudo split coaxial CW Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) linac. This is followed by 221 superconducting cavities of various types. A section of the RFQ linac was fabricated and tested under R&D funding for the RIA Project. This is the first section of the six-section, 392 cm RFQ linac. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and testing of this RFQ.

Multibeam cavity for low energy beam acceleration

In order to accelerate high intensity ion beams, it is necessary to suppress a defocusing force by the space charge effect. The function of the defocusing force is extremely strong in the low energy region. One of the solutions is the relaxation of the defocusing force by dividing the high intensity beam into several beams. We then propose a high intensity injector system with a multibeam IH type radio frequency quadrupole (IH–RFQ) linac, and simulated the resonance frequency and the electromagnetic field distributions in the multibeam type IH–RFQ linac. We report the design of the multibeam type IH–RFQ linac.

Active detection of small quantities of shielded highly-enriched uranium using low-dose 60-kev neutron interrogation

Active interrogation with low-energy neutrons provides a search technique for highly-enriched uranium concealed in cargo. We describe the technique and show initial results using a low-dose 60-keV neutron beam. This technique produces a clear induced fission signal in the presence of small quantities of 235U. The technique has been validated with low-Z and high-Z cargo materials. The technique uses a forward-directed beam of 60-keV neutrons to induce fission in 235U. Detection of the fast fission neutrons with pulse-shape discriminating scintillators is then the signature for 235U. The beam of neutrons is generated with a 1.93MeV proton beam impinging on a natural lithium target. The proton beam is produced by a radio-frequency quadrupole LINAC. The 60keV neutron beam is forward-directed because the 7Li(p,n) reaction is just above threshold for a proton energy of 1.93MeV.

33.7 MHz heavy-ion radio frequency quadrupole linac at VECC Kolkata

A 33.7 MHz heavy-ion radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerator has been designed, built, and tested. It is a four-rod-type RFQ designed for acceleration of 1.38 keVu, qA> or =116 ions to about 29 keVu. Transmission efficiencies of about 85% and 80% have been measured for the unanalyzed and analyzed beams, respectively, of oxygen ((16)O(2+), (16)O(3+), (16)O(4+)), nitrogen ((14)N(3+), (14)N(4+)), and argon ((40)Ar(4+)). The system design and measurements along with results of beam acceleration test will be presented.

Acceleration of high current fully stripped carbon ion beam by direct injection scheme

Acceleration of a 17mA, 100keV∕u C6+ ion beam has been successfully achieved with an radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac by means of “direct injection scheme.” The C6+ beam produced by a laser ion source with a Nd:YAG laser was injected to the high current RFQ linac. It has been experimentally proved that the fully stripped carbon ion beam with a current more than 10mA was accelerated by the RFQ linac.