Development of a medium-energy superconducting heavy-ion linac

Abstract

The Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) facility project includes a cw 1.4 GeV driver linac and a 100 MV postaccelerator both based on superconducting (SC) cavities operating at frequencies from 48 to 805 MHz. In these linacs more than 99% of the total voltage is provided by SC cavities. An initial acceleration is provided by room temperature radio frequency quadrupoles. The driver linac is designed for acceleration of any ion species, from protons up to 900 MeV to uranium up to 400 MeV/u. The novel feature of the driver linac is an acceleration of multiple charge-state heavy-ion beams in order to achieve 400 kW beam power. This paper presents design features of a medium-energy SC heavy-ion linac taking the RIA driver linac as an example. The dynamics of single and multiple charge-state beams are detailed, including the effects of possible errors in rf field parameters and misalignments of transverse focusing elements. The important design considerations of such linac are presented. Several new conceptual solutions in beam dynamics in SC accelerating structures for heavy-ion applications are discussed. © 2002 The American Physical Society.